Dr. John Egloff did a tad more than out dumb a few people

by Debbie Little

When Dr. John “Tad” Egloff, 84, is inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame in Goshen, NY, this evening (July 5), there will be many friends and family members in attendance to wish him well. Unfortunately, one who will not be there is Egloff’s good friend of 50 years, John Kopas, who is recovering from a recent, unexpected medical procedure.

When asked what he thought made Egloff so good at what he does, Kopas said, “Well, that’s quite a question. He’s obviously a brilliant veterinarian. There’s no question about that. And he, I’m sure, is one of the better experts on bloodlines, and the other thing you’ve got to throw in is how hard he worked all his life.”

Then Kopas added with a laugh, “I love the expression that he uses every now and then when you say he’s done well for himself, he’ll say, ‘Yeah, I managed to out dumb a few people.’”

Standardbreds were not on the self-effacing Egloff’s radar when he started his career, or even before that growing up. Louisiana and Texas were not known to be hotbeds of harness racing. However, he did have talent when it came to horses.

“I grew up with a ranch background with horses and cattle,” Egloff said. “My father was a cattleman and I had an uncle who had a ranch, which is where I spent most of my time.”

At Northwestern State College, Egloff helped start the rodeo club and was also part of that group when he went to Texas A&M.

“I competed in rodeos until I got accepted into vet school… At that point I quit riding bulls and bucking horses, but I still roped,” Egloff said. “When I got accepted to veterinary school was also when I got married, and my wife dropped out of college to help put me through college. So, one thing I will say, probably to anybody, is that she’s been the biggest influence over me… We ended up in Pennsylvania, and I have become a huge fan of Adams County, PA, and Pennsylvania in general, and I now love the standardbred horse.”

Prior to his move to the Keystone State, Egloff spent some time down south in the Bluegrass and beyond.

“When I graduated from veterinary school, I had an opportunity to go to Hager, Davis and McGee [Veterinarian Services] in Lexington, and Dr. Bill McGee kind of took me under his wing… We did Frank Ervin’s work, and so I went with him to Mr. Ervin’s barn, and at that time he had Bret Hanover and Kerry Way, the great filly that won that Hambletonian. So that was my first exposure to standardbreds.”

Seeing races at The Red Mile were responsible for putting Egloff on his harness racing Hall of Fame path.

“Alan Leavitt from Lana Lobell Farms called Dr. McGee looking for a veterinarian and Dr. McGee recommended me, and he called me, and I turned him down,” Egloff said. “He called me again, and I turned him down. And I was talking to one of my good friends, Dr. Johnny Griggs, and I said, ‘This guy from Pennsylvania keeps calling me. They want to hire me on a standardbred farm, and I don’t want to go to Pennsylvania, and I’ve never worked much with standardbreds.’ And Dr. Griggs said, ‘Would you go for a price?’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah, I guess I’d go for a price.’ And he said, ‘Next time he calls, tell him what it is.’

“So, the next time he called, I told him what it was, and he said, ‘I’ll have a plane pick you up Monday.’”

Egloff said he went to Lana Lobell with no intention of staying, and when the breeding season was over, he got another call from McGee.

“He said he had a job for me down south,” Egloff said. “I said, ‘Where down south?’ He said, ‘Way down south, Australia.’ And so, I asked him, ‘When do I have to let you know?’ And he said, ‘Pretty quick, because breeding season here ends, and theirs starts.’ So, I turned to my wife, Judy, and I said, ‘How long would it take us to get ready to go to Australia?’ She said, ‘I can start packing now.’ Ten days later with a 2-year-old and a 4-month-old baby, we landed in Sydney.”

After spending that breeding season Down Under, Egloff returned to the U.S. and was enticed back to Lana Lobell, and again received a call from McGee. This time his mentor wanted him to return to Kentucky and Hager, Davis and McGee. But Egloff liked Pennsylvania and decided it was time to venture out on his own, thus the founding of Vieux Carre Farms, the naming of which he gives credit to his wife.

“It was totally her idea, because I said nobody would be able to pronounce it,” Egloff said with a laugh. “She said, ‘Well, you brought me up north.’ She’s from New Orleans, and she didn’t want to give up her southern heritage, so she usually gets what she wants.

“I’d always wanted to start a farm of my own. Being at Lana Lobell, I think it was about 11 years, was great, because I got to meet all the major players in harness racing. I got to be friends with people like Billy Haughton and Jack Kopas. I got to meet all the top trainers, because they always came to look at the yearlings at Lana Lobell every year, so I got to know those guys, I got to know them really well.”

Haughton’s ability to spot what he wanted quickly in a yearling is well known, but Egloff said he wasn’t the only one.

“[Haughton] really was terrific about everything, and he was one of those guys who, I think, made everybody that knew him feel like they were his best friends,” Egloff said. “I mean, his personality was something, but I think the quickest guy to show yearlings to, for me, was Jack Kopas. He was the greatest. Jack never went over their knees, ankles, and all that stuff. He either liked them or he didn’t like them, and he had an awful lot of success buying yearlings that weren’t extremely high priced and turning them into great horses.”

When told about the kind words Egloff had for his late dad, Kopas said, “The feeling was mutual. My father had a lot of respect for him as well, and so do I.

“When I decided to go out on my own, he was the first one to send me a horse to train, and I’ll always be very grateful that he gave me that opportunity.”

When asked if he thought Egloff had an advantage owning a breeding farm and also being a veterinarian, Kopas said, “It’s obvious with all the success he had that the combination of the two probably helped, but I don’t think there’s ever been a better veterinarian as far as fertility goes.

“I know plenty of examples of people that sent him mares that they had been unable to get in foal for two or three years, and Doc would get them in foal.

“I believe when he was there at Lana Lobell for years, I think that 75 per cent of the mares they bred got in foal, and that’s pretty phenomenal.”

According to Kopas, Egloff was also excellent at diagnosing lameness.

“That’s another thing a lot of people don’t realize about him, he wasn’t a one-trick pony,” Kopas said. “I’ve had him diagnose horses over the phone for me. I’d tell him what the symptoms were, or what they were exhibiting, and he could come up with a solution, without even seeing the horse.

“I had a good filly by the name of Delinquent Account. I trained her when she was a 2- and 3-year-old and I was having some issues with her and none of the vets up here [in Canada] could come up with what the problem seemed to be. And I got a hold of Dr. Egloff, and he diagnosed her over the phone. He told me what I needed to do, and we got it done, and she went on and was a pretty good mare.”

In addition to singing Egloff’s praises, Kopas also had a couple of funny stories to share.

“When I was still with my father, we were training at Ben White Raceway in Florida, and we had a virus go through the barn, and the colts and fillies couldn’t shake it,” Kopas said. “So, dad got hold of Doc, and he was telling him what was going on, and Doc said, ‘Well, get your vet to get you some Bactrim, it’s an oral solution, and give them that.’ My father said, ‘How much should I give them?’ In typical Egloff fashion, he said, ‘Well, you know when you take the top off a bottle and it goes glug, glug, glug? Give them two glugs.’

“But one of my favorite stories about Dr. Egloff involved George Hempt. Doc had said for years that if he ever had a 2-year-old colt get a record better than two minutes, he’d shave his beard off. And Doc and George owned a colt together, Pence Time, and he won at The Meadows. George was there with Doc that night and told him that he had the razor ready, but they just missed [breaking 2 minutes].

“A year later, I was racing Champagne Happy at Buffalo Raceway. Doc owned him with my father and Peter Rhulen and I won a New York Sire Stakes with him in [1]:58. And when I got back to the hotel, I called Doc and I said, ‘Get the razor out.’

“He’s a wonderful man in his profession, and a wonderful man in life, and I value his friendship, and always will.”