Taking A
Closer Look At Team East:
Steve
joined the Billings circuit about seven years ago and has made a host of great
new friends. Mr. Oldford graduated from
Western Michigan University and joined the family business. His day job is the owner of a manufacturer's
representative agency that specializes in automotive components.
Joe
Faraldo drove his first race in 1980 at Goshen Historic Track and since then
has accumulated over 130 wins. Joe
competed in races internationally at almost every Hippodrome in Italy, Belgium,
Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria.
In
1986 he competed in an international competition in Taranto, Italy and was
encouraged to, and did organize, the first World Cup of Amateur Racing ever
conducted outside of Europe in 1988 then repeated the effort in 2008 when David
Siegel was the US representative.
Joe
represented the US in the World Cup when the event was conducted on Canadian
soil. Joe is one of original
participants in the Billings amateur series and is the founder of the North
American Amateur Drivers Association and an honorary member of many European
amateur associations.
Under
his direction, the North American Amateur Drivers Association has hosted many
international competitions and aided in others run by local amateur clubs Joe
has encouraged over the years. Joe gives
guidance to many aspiring drivers at the USTA Driving school where many people
like our own David Siegel started out.
He
continues to serve as a Director of the USTA, Chairman of that group’s NYC
District and served four years as Chairman of the Board. Joe has also been the Chief Executive Officer
of the Standardbred Owners Association of NY and has guided horsemen through
years of contract negotiations and legislative battles to an end result that
Yonkers Raceway and all of NYS has enjoyed a renaissance in Standardbred
racing.
Tony
Verruso is the owner of a small embroidery shop in Queens, NY. He makes many of the garments worn by amateur
and professional harness racing individuals.
He is married and has one child.
His wife, Dawn, and daughter, Kristina, travel extensively with him in
his racing endeavors. He plays golf and
ice hockey, but neither compare to his love of harness racing.
He
acquired his love for the sport at 10 years old going to Roosevelt and Yonkers
Raceways with his Mom and Dad on weekends.
Verruso is well known for driving numerous hours just for the thrill of
a 2-minute race. He has been driving for
13 years and last year was named President of the CKG Billings Harness Drivers
Association.
Verruso
won the Billings Gold Cup once and last year finished first in the Eastern Division. He also competes in many of the other local
Amateur Races across the country. His
other passion is obviously his daughter, who excels at baseball and basketball
and an avid equestrian.
Peter
Gerry has competed passionately in each of the 30 editions of the Billings
Series since its founding in 1982. A
professional venture capitalist five days a week, he is a gentleman driver on
the sixth day.
From
1991 until 2010, Peter served as President of the Delvin Miller Harness Drivers
Association, which administers the annual C.K.G. Billings Harness Driving
Championship Series. During that period
he grew the Billings Series membership from 10 members to a high of 150 members
in 2006.
In
addition he instituted the Delvin Miller Harness Drivers Championship Gold Cup
and Silver Races contested annually for $25,000 and $15,000 respectively.
In
addition to continuing as the Treasurer of the Delvin Miller Harness Drivers
Association, he serves as Vice President and Trustee of the Standardbred
Retirement Foundation and as Treasurer and Trustee of the Harness Racing Museum
& Hall of Fame.
Formerly
he served as Treasurer and Director of the Hambletonian Society, as Chairman of
the New Jersey Sires Stakes and as a trustee of the Harness Horse Youth
Foundation.
A
graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Business School, Peter is the
Managing Partner of Sycamore Ventures, a Princeton; New Jersey based private
equity and venture capital investment firm he co-founded in 1995.
Previous
to starting his own investment firm, he was, for eleven years, President of
Citicorp Venture Capital, Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Citigroup where he
had been employed for 23 years.
Here is a
closer look at the Team West:
Karen
Isbell was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana and now lives in Lincoln, California
with her husband Allen Aldrich. They
have two children and two grandchildren.
She was a jockey for 23 years and rode her first Thoroughbred to victory
on September 3, 1979 at Cal Expo. Karen
also won races aboard Quarter Horses, Arabians and Mules.
After
retiring as a jockey in 2001, Karen's competitive spirit kept her active,
riding hunters and jumpers. At the age
of 54, exactly 31 years after her first victory aboard a Thoroughbred, Karen
drove in a harness race at Cal Expo on September 3, 2010. Two months later, she
won her first race.
David
Siegel was born in New Jersey; Dave migrated to California 30 years ago to
pursue his MBA at Stanford. Little did
he know the site of a farm where 700 brood mares resided in the late 1800s
would be connected to his mid-40s discovery of harness racing.
Dave
is the president of TrackMaster, a company that provides handicapping data for
Standardbred, Thoroughbred and Quarter horse racing to the public and the
industry. Through that connection, he
bought his first race horse in 2002, a horse he still owns and rides daily for
pleasure today.
He
attended the USTA Amateur Driving school and as a result, became passionate
about his new found avocation. He was
honored by being named Amateur Driver of the Year, representing the US when it
hosted the World Cup, and has driven in New Zealand in a very special racing
tour of the country with 4 other US drivers (including Steve Oldford).
He
is the president of the California Amateur Driving Club and works diligently
doing his part to see that amateur driving remains an avenue for participation
for horse owners in California.
Rick
Bertrand was born and raised three miles from Hazel Park Raceway in Michigan in
a family of harness racing fanatics.
When he was 14 he got a job cleaning stalls and fell in love with the
racing industry and soon after start jogging and learning how to train and then
drive. Rick has been driving horses since 1989 and still loves every minute of
it.
He
drove in the Billings for a couple of years which took him to a variety of
venues.
His
most memorable victories included winning the Fauts Memorial race at Delaware,
Ohio, representing the California Amateur Driving Club, and, of course winning
the final race of the Pro-Am at Pompano Park on March 13, which propelled team
Cal Expo to narrowly defeat the Florida Pro-Am Team. Rick works full-time in the flooring business
to support his hobbies.
His
other love is bowling. He bowls in
tournaments almost every weekend and travel to tournaments when I can. Rick has four kids and three grandchildren.
Amanda
Fraser was born in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Amanda, 33, joined the CADC in spring of 2011. After working with Thoroughbred racehorses as
a groom in beginning in 2002 in Alberta, Canada, Amanda started working with
Standardbreds. After two years of
spending half of each year with Thoroughbreds and the other half with
Standardbreds, Amanda made the decision to become fully involved with harness
horses.
In
2007 she met her husband, Scott Cisco, and has since had the chance to race
horses in Ohio, Ontario, Alberta, and California to race in Sacramento. Amanda gives credit to her deep interest in
harness racing to her stepfather for buying her a retired Standardbred mare as
a riding horse as a young girl.
This
induced a life-long love and respect for Standardbred racehorses which
eventually led to her present-day passion and love for the sport.
Live
racing resumes at Cal Expo on Friday (April 13) & Saturday (April 14) at
6:00 p.m. (PST). On
every live card, Cal Expo offers free parking & free admission after 4:30
p.m. On Friday, Cal Expo offers Happy Hour
from 4:00-7:00 p.m. on which Beer; Well Drinks & Wine are offered at $4
each, while a Burger
with fries is offered at $5.
Cal
Expo currently offers a reduced 15 percent takeout rate on all Pick 4’s. Additionally, all Late Pick 4’s now come with
an increased $20,000-guaranteed gross pool.
Also, the Friday Late Pick 4 will offer a 0% takeout on all winning
wagers made on track or at Twinspires.com, while the Saturday Late Pick 4 will
be broadcast on TVG.
