By Mark Ratzky, publicity –
Cal Expo Harness
Saturday night’s featured
pace is named for Dave Goldschmidt, who passed away of natural causes in July
at the age of 62.
Dave was born in New York
City and developed a love of harness racing in his early teens.
He attended the University of
Denver where he was a sports writer on the newspaper, but after hearing about
the new Race Track Management Program at the University of Arizona, he knew he
had to transfer to that school and was in that first graduating class.
Among Dave’s extensive resume
in the sport, he was racing secretary at Los Alamitos and Cal Expo and
co-racing secretary at Bay Meadows; assistant racetrack manager at Hollywood
Park and a founder, president and major financial backer of the Premier Harness
Meet at Los Alamitos in the 1990s.
After his retirement, Dave
concentrated on betting on the trotters and pacers and occasionally quarter
horses while also developing a keen interest in politics.
Dave met his wife Suzy in the
late 1990s and they began dating in 2006. They completed building their dream
house in 2014 and were married that year.
Among their shared passions
were a love of tennis, world travel and volunteer work.
Eunice Morrow, who worked
closely with Dave at the Premier Harness Meet, explained how important he was
to harness racing in California in the early 1990s
“Harness racing
was in trouble maintaining a meet at Los Alamitos and thankfully Dave came to
our rescue with a large monetary donation needed to keep harness racing
active,” Eunice said.
“A few months
later the industry found more funds were necessary and again Dave came to our
rescue. He did not want it known that he had donated these deposits and
volunteered the information that his mother in New York had loaned the
organization funds.
“Later, when
Premier II Harness Racing was formed, Dave became Racing Secretary,
spending many hours in several positions helping the sport he loved stay
alive. Without Dave, I wonder if harness racing would have been able to
continue.”
Eunice added,
“There is no doubt David Goldschmidt will now be in Heaven with so many
other of the great Harness Racing enthusiasts.”
Joel Lesser was
best friends with Goldschmidt for over 40 years, playing hours and hours of
tennis and golf, and also worked alongside Dave at the Premier Harness meets.
“When he was
president of Premier, he said that the fans and the horsemen came first, and
management came last,” Joel recalled.
“I can say Dave
Goldschmidt is the fairest and most honest person I have every known in my life
and wanted everyone to do well.”
Cal Expo Trackman Marty Bridges
was good friends with Dave for several decades.
“Dave was highly intelligent
with an acute, analytic mind and would have been excellent at any profession he
chose,” Bridges related.
“He didn’t look it, but he
was also very athletic and a huge sports fan, especially baseball and tennis.
He would have been a great baseball manager.”
Marty also had his own
private name for Dave. “I called him Patch, which was short for the legendary
pacer Dan Patch. When we made dinner reservations it would always be under the
name Dancer, short for Hall of Famer Stanley Dancer.”
Dave Goldschmidt
Memorial heads card
Allmyx’sliventexas, fresh
from two dominating victories since returning from his Midwest foray, gets top
billing in Saturday night’s $10,000 Dave Goldschmidt Memorial Pace.
Watch and Wager LLC will
present 11 races on Saturday, with first post set for 6:15 p.m. and the main
event going as the eighth contest on the program.
Allmyx’sliventexas is a
5-year-old homebred son of Hi Ho Silverheel’s who races for Wayne and Rod
Knittel with Bob Johnson the conditioner and Mooney Svendsen once again
handling the lines.
Sent off the 1-2 choice in a
conditioned event on opening night November 10, the bay performer made it look
like an overlay as the took complete command up front turning for home and
waltzed home with four and a half lengths to spare.
Despite having the outside
post in a field of eight in last week’s Open, Allmyx’sliventexas once again
rewarded the chalkplayers by going coast-to-coast for a three-length decision
over a “good” racetrack.
I’m An Athlete has been
runner-up to the Knittel performer in his two appearances at this stand and
will be looking to turn the tables in the Goldschmidt for owner Ronald
Rettig-Zucchi, trainer Jessie Pacheco and pilot James Kennedy. He set his 1:51
career standard here early in the year.
Completing the field, from
the rail out: Last Dragon, Prodigal, Gorgeous For Real, Mr Varsity, Dontdoubtthelakers,
Why Asky Why and Justabitofcrazy.
