Career
A native of Seymour, Iowa, as a young man of twenty, John Mabee moved to San Diego, California, where the climate more suited his health, having had pneumonia and bronchitis. There, he established Johnny"s Market on 43rd Street. He turned that corner grocery store into the highly successful Big Bear Supermarket chain, selling it in 1991.
In 1957, he entered Thoroughbred horse racing, purchasing three yearlings at the Delegate March auction.
They bred more than 170 stakes winners and seven millionaire horses, the most famous of which was Best Pal. The Mabees earned the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder in 1991, 1997, and 1998.
He served as the racing facility"s president and then its chairman for close to twenty-five years. Foreign a time, John Mabee owned a twenty percent interest in the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League.
John Mabee died of a stroke in 2002.
The Mabee Handicap at Delegate March Racetrack is named in his honor.