Lloyd Arnold, Stan Bergstein remembered with races at Cal
Expo
By Mark Ratzky, publicity – Cal Expo Harness
Lloyd
Arnold and Stan Bergstein, two legendary figures in harness racing, have races
named in their honor this weekend at Cal Expo. The Lloyd Arnold Pace is set for
Saturday night and the Stan Bergstein Trot is the feature on Sunday.
Lloyd
Arnold was an owner and track operator of the highest caliber. He passed away
in 2012 at the age of 83. Originally the owner of Arnold Cattle Co. in Iowa,
Mr. Arnold raced hundreds of horses in Illinois and across the Midwest
throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.
During that era,
Mr. Arnold raced horses like Warm Breeze, who earned more than $250,000 in two
seasons of racing in the mid-1970s, and Dancing David, who earned more than
$200,000 in the 1960s. Warm Breeze took Mr. Arnold to racing’s pinnacle for the
first time when he set the all-age world record at over this track, then known
as Golden Bear Raceway.
His
top horses in later years included the pacing mare Sanabelle Island, who earned
$1.6 million lifetime and won 57 of 110 starts. Also of note was Bagel Beach
Boy, who won the 2001 Messenger and Matron stakes.
In
August 2003, Mr. Arnold bought Chevie Duramax, who then went on to set world
records for 2-year-old pacing geldings on both mile and half-mile tracks. The
fastest 3-year-old pacer in North America in 2004 belonged to Mr. Arnold as
Quik Pulse Mindale won in 1:48 at Balmoral.
In addition to being a prominent standardbred owner,
Mr. Arnold operated this track during those Golden Bear Raceway years and also
bought Los Alamitos in the late 1980s, eventually selling the track to his
partner, Ed Allred.
Mr. Arnold was inducted into the California Harness
Hall of Fame in April of 2008. He also enjoyed personal honors in 2001 when he
was feted by the Delaware Sportswriters and
Broadcasters at their annual awards dinner and received the Owner of the Year
Award from the U.S. Harness Writers' Association.
Chris Bardis said, “Harness Racing was one of
Lloyd's great passions. He accomplished so much for the sport not only in
California, but nationwide. He was ‘Mr. Harness Racing’.
“He conducted race meetings at Cal Expo, Bay
Meadows, Golden Gate Fields, Del Mar, Pomona, Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos.
I know of no one else who has had a greater impact on the harness world.”
Sunday’s Stan Bergstein Trot is named for the
legendary figure in harness racing who passed away in 2011 at the age of 87.
Mr. Bergstein was a harness-racing titan who advocated for cooperation
between the Standardbred and Thoroughbred industries to solve the sports'
common problems.
He stepped down in 2011 after 50 years as the executive vice president of
Harness Tracks of America, the Standardbred industry's trade association. He
was immediately appointed as the organization's first executive emeritus, and
continued to advise the association and write guest columns for the Daily
Racing Form until the weeks before his death.
The only person to ever be inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame
and its Communicators Hall of Fame, Mr. Bergstein worked in a wide variety of
roles at racetracks, auction houses, announcer's booths, and racing
publications, and he maintained extensive collections of harness-racing books
and artwork.
He was widely respected not only in
the harness industry, but also in the Thoroughbred industry, and he served as a
mentor to generations of young racing professionals through a close association
with the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program, located in Tucson,
for the past 40 years.
Mr. Bergstein was a forceful proponent of forging closer ties between the
Standardbred and Thoroughbred industries, most notably in tackling medication
abuse and problems with drug-testing. In dozens of commentaries, Bergstein
maintained that the Standardbred industry's problems were, or would be those of
the Thoroughbred industry, and that neglect of a problem in one sport would
damage the other.
Bergstein borrowed from the Thoroughbred industry early in his career,
incorporating claiming races as a racing secretary while working at the Chicago
tracks in the 1950's. At the time, the harness racing industry did not run
claiming races, and they are now as commonplace in Standardbred racing as they
are in Thoroughbred racing Bergstein also spearheaded the creation of
Standardbred Investigative Services, a security agency modeled on the
Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau.
A native of Illinois, Bergstein attended harness races as a young man and
received a journalism degree from Northwestern University. He was the former
executive editor of Hoof Beats magazine, and the former vice president of
publicity and public relations for the United States Trotting Association.
Cal Expo trackman/program director Marty Bridges
credits Stan Bergstein with bringing him into harness racing as a profession.
“After college and two years in the Army, I was
employed by the small business association. At night, after work, I was a
regular patron at Sportsman’s Park and Maywood in Chicago.
“My supervisor, a former sportswriter for the
Chicago Daily News, knew of my interest and called Stan to set up a meeting.
Surprisingly, I was to meet him at Du Quoin on Hambletonian Day. Watching Stan
call the races from a slightly elevated booth on the infield adjacent to the
finish line was thrilling and between races we talked about racing, horses,
drivers and trainers.
“His knowledge of the sport was amazing and I had
never met anyone like him, and still haven’t. He introduced me to John Tinsley,
the program director for all the Chicago tracks and John hired me on the spot.
It’s been a great ride, doing something I love.”
Gene Vallandingham first met Stan Bergstein in 1959
when he was working for the legendary Joe O’Brien.
“Stan came to Joe’s farm every spring for the annual
Camptown racing weekend, when all of Shafter would be there for a day of
racing. Stan was the true voice of harness racing, he was liked by all and I
miss him.”
Chris Schick said, "Stan was foremost a kind
and compassionate person. He was a true visionary in the harness racing
industry. In 1979 well before simulcasting, he so rightly stated the future of
the industry was in how well we brought the product to the public. He was also
very vocal of the industry for being reluctant to embrace change. Our industry
lost a giant when he passed.”
Arnold Pace, Sire Stakes, Jackpot 6 spotlighted
The
$10,000 Lloyd Arnold Free-for-all Pace, a pair of $10,000 California Sire
Stakes and a $48,130 carryover in the Jackpot 6 are among the main attractions
Saturday night at Cal Expo.
A
14-race card is on tap under the Watch and Wager LLC banner with first post set
for 6:10 p.m. The Jackpot 6 is one of four wagers on the program that feature a
reduced 16% takeout rate.
The
others are the Hi-5, which like the Jackpot 6 is a 10-cent minimum bet; the
50-cent Pick 5; and the 20-cent Pick 4, which comes with a $25,000-guaranteed
pool.
Looking
at the Arnold Pace, China King is fresh from a 22-1 upset in last week’s Open
when he hung a narrow decision on heavily-favored Pancetta in a 1:52 1/5 mile
He drew the outside post in the field of seven.
A
7-year-old American Ideal gelding who carries the banner of Gary and Jen Sabot
with Gene Vallandingham training and Steve Wiseman in the sulky, he
went-to-coast to capture the January 17 Open at 19-1, then came back last time
to score from a tracking position at another nice price.
Taking
him are Pointsman, who gives the Vallandingham barn two looks at the outcome;
Rusty Skipp and J C Onthebeach for conditioner Ray Burt; Alligator Falls from
the Sal Wenceslao shedrow; the Junior Wilkinson-trained A Real Miracle; and
Love Live Laugh for trainer Denise Maier.
Uringoodhands
and Hi Ho’s Little Rev have dominated the sophomore pacing colts Sire Stakes to
this point and get another chance to settle the score on Saturday, while Placer
gets top billing in the stakes gathering for the 4-year-old trotters.
