John R. Gaines, 76; Breeders’ Cup Founder Helped Create Kentucky Horse Park

John R. Gaines, who bred and raced thoroughbred and Standardbred horses for more than 40 years and was known as the founder of the Breeders’ Cup series of races, died Friday at St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington, Ky.

Gaines, 76, suffered from diabetes. He was still active on several horse fronts, and last year campaigned against the operation of two horse slaughterhouses in Texas, not far from where the 21st Breeders’ Cup was held in Grand Prairie.

Gaines was the impetus behind the Breeders’ Cup, a one-day offering of championship races that began at Hollywood Park in 1984. He secured the support of NBC-TV, which carried the first seven races during a four-hour telecast and has continued to televise the series.

The Breeders’ Cup has been held at other tracks in the U.S. and Canada since then. Last year’s event was an eight-race program with purses worth $14 million.

Gaines never won a Breeders’ Cup race, but was proud to have been part-owner of seven stallions that sired Breeders’ Cup winners.

“The whole idea,” he once said, “was to give racing a year-end push that the public could identify with. We already had the Triple Crown series [the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes], but that was just for 3-year-olds, and it ended in early June. We needed something that would keep the momentum going.”

Gaines’ grandfather, Thomas P. Gaines, and father, Clarence F. Gaines, who sold the family dog-food business to General Foods in 1956, were Standardbred -- harness racing -- horsemen.

John Gaines bought Gainesway Farm in Lexington in 1962 and started a thoroughbred operation. One of his first thoroughbreds, filly Oil Royalty, won the Las Flores Handicap at Santa Anita Park. The horse was trained by Charlie Whittingham and ridden by Bill Shoemaker.

“John Gaines was a great market timer,” said D.G. Van Clief, president of the Breeders’ Cup. “He knew when to buy and when to sell.

“He was a most amazing man,” Van Clief added. “He was a family man, an intellectual, a philanthropist, an activist, a visionary and a leader. He had immense intellectual curiosity and a capacity for learning, which made him, among other things, an expert in fields as diverse as art, literature, architecture, genetics, farming and politics.”

Gaines was a partner in ownership of stallions Lyphard, Riverman, Blushing Groom, Vaguely Noble, Bold Bidder and Broad Brush. He also bred Kerry Way, who won the 1963 Hambletonian, one of the races in trotting’s Triple Crown.

Born Nov. 22, 1928, in Sherburne, N.Y., Gaines earned degrees at Notre Dame and the University of Kentucky. He worked as an intelligence officer for the Pentagon, where one of his jobs was to brief high-ranking Defense Department officials on information gathered by U-2 surveillance flights over the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

He was also a director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington and, in 1986, through a New York auction house, sold a collection of his paintings for more than $21 million.

Gaines was a founder of the Kentucky Horse Park, which features two museums, twin theaters and nearly 50 breeds of horses. The Lexington complex is one of the state’s leading tourist attractions. He also started the Gaines Center for Humanities at the University of Kentucky.

Gaines received the Eclipse Award of Merit, one of racing’s highest honors, in 1984.

Gaines’ survivors include his wife, Joan, and two children.