John Franks

John Franks Wrote Thoroughbred History

John Franks once wanted to be a sportswriter. But instead of writing sports news he wound up making it.

Franks fashioned a career as one of North America’s leading thoroughbred owners and breeders before his death in 2003. He won a record four Eclipse Awards, thoroughbred racing's top honor, for being the outstanding horse owner of the year in 1983, 1984, 1993 and 1994. In his career, he led the nation's owners in victories nine times and in money won five times.

Born and raised in Haughton, Franks put a familiar face to thoroughbred racing and to Louisiana Downs and helped popularize them with the general public. Albert Stall, the former chairman of the Louisiana State Racing Commission, credited Franks' association with the Bossier City track as being one of the reasons for its success.

The son of an oil rig foreman, Franks was born in 1925 the youngest of seven children. A three-sport athlete at Haughton High School, he was a walk-on in track at Louisiana State University. World War II interrupted his studies in journalism at LSU and, when he returned from duty with the Air Force, he changed his major to geology. He earned his degree in 1949 and entered the oil business. A little over 10 years later, he opened his own company, Franks Petroleum. His success in the petroleum business provided the opportunity for him to take up a hobby that soon turned into a mega-successful second career.

That career began when he agreed to help a friend shortly after Franks purchased his 130-acre Franks Farm in Shreveport. Trainer Billy White, who once conditioned horses for Robert F. Roberts, asked if he could stable a stallion in the Franks’ barn.  Franks agreed. Months later, he agreed to let White buy “a few horses” for him at a New Orleans sale. "The total for all three was around $5,000," his wife, Alta, recalls.  From that small group of "acorns," John Franks and Franks Farms grew into a racing force.

His first foal at Franks Farms, Alta's Lady, came in 1976 and followed a pattern in the early years. Family-man Franks called on his family background when naming foals early in his career. Alta's Lady never raced, but the mare and the stallion John's Choice produced the filly Blissful Union, which many say was Franks' favorite. An intense student of the science of bloodlines and pedigree as he got farther into the business, Franks' naming process changed to trace the foal's lineage.

His first trip to the winner's circle came with Market Place at Louisiana Downs. “And it set him off as if he had won the Kentucky Derby, remembers one observer. In the '80s, the Franks name spread across the thoroughbred racing landscape. His early stakes victories included the New Orleans Handicap at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans and the Fair Grounds Oaks. In 1998 his Eclipse Award champion 2 year old Answer Lively won the Breeders Cup Juvenile. In 1993, Franks' Kissin Kris won the Haskell Invitational, finished second in the Belmont Stakes and third in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

In 1994, Franks was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

Franks owned Franks Farms in Shreveport and breeding divisions in Opelousas, Louisiana, and Ocala, Florida, during his years in the industry. And from those locations, John Franks wrote thoroughbred racing history.