Saturday’s night’s 11th race at Cal Expo is named for Dr. Robert Franklin Goodbary, DVM, who passed away on December 28, at his ranch in Clements, California.

He was surrounded by family and friends at home in his final days, when he candidly would say he was “just chuggin’ along.” Known to everyone as ‘Doc,’ he was born August 3, 1934 in Chandler, Oklahoma to Omer ‘Snip’ and Olga Mae Goodbary. His father worked as a farrier, moving his family from Oklahoma to Yuba City, California in the 1940s. His mother was a homemaker.

Doc Goodbary graduated from Yuba City High School in 1952. While in high school, he worked as the only paperboy who delivered the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle to Yuba City and Marysville. He also worked for Dr. Sam Fisher as a kennel boy, and later worked with larger animals, primarily cows.

After graduating from high school, he attended college at Michigan State and graduated in 1958 with a Doctorate in Veterinarian Medicine. This is where he met Noel Lassen, whom he married and they had two sons, David and Richard Goodbary. During his summers off from college, he came back home to work at the Del Monte Cannery as the Floor Foreman, overseeing about 35 employees.

After graduating from college, Goodbary moved back to California, where he began his career as a Professor at the University of California-Davis, then opened a small animal Veterinarian Clinic. He also owned and operated the Buena Mora Ranch in Pleasanton and later a ranch in Clements.

Doc Goodbary worked as the Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse Race Track Veterinarian in northern and southern California racetracks, operating on and treating many a racehorse in his day. In northern California, he worked many years at Bay Meadows, Golden Gate Fields and Tanforan racetracks, as well as the Northern California Fairground circuit that included Cal Expo, Stockton, Pleasanton, Santa Rosa and Fresno. In southern California, he worked many years at the Los Alamitos and Santa Anita racetracks.

Doc Goodbary enjoyed watching football, gardening (at home and even at the racetrack), playing cards and winning, loved dancing and making his annual treks to Sayulita, Mexico to vacation with family and friends. He liked being in charge and doing it his way, the right way. No one was ever a stranger to him. He was greatly respected, loved and adored by family, friends and colleagues who knew him. They all were considered family.

Doc Goodbary is survived by his wife, Jeannette Goodbary of Clements; his son, David Goodbary of St. Louis, Missouri; his brother and sister-in-law, George and Ginger Goodbary of Marysville, California; and grandchildren, Elizabeth, Connor, Dylan, Brooke, Ryan, Amanda, Alex and Anthony; and many nephews and nieces.

He was preceded in death by his father and mother, Snip and Olga Mae Goodbary; his two sisters, Mary Ann Yerzy and Donna Sue Prevatt; his son, Richard Goodbary; and special friend, Dorothy Stringer, who was his mother-in-law.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the following animal rescue: The Grace Foundation, P.O. Box 4692, El Dorado Hills, CA, 95762.

Ideal Smiles connections grinning ear-to-ear

Ideal Smile is one of the hottest horses on the grounds, having rattled off three straight 1:54-and-change victories for owners Scott and Lisa Ehrlich and driver/trainer Steve Wiseman.

Two of those decisions have come from a stalking position, while last week’s tally was accomplished in coast-to-coast fashion. The race was without an anxious moment, as the son of American Ideal made his post-time odds of 6-5 look like a belated Christmas gift. He’s back in action Saturday night with a second-tier starting position.

Scott Ehrlich related, “Ideal Smile caught my eye in the early part of last year here when he showed very good speed on the front-end for Mike Eaton, carrying it well most of the time. This impressed me because I feel that the bias at Cal Expo almost always favours closers.

“Fast-forward to last October when Mike invited my family to his farm to jog some horses when we made a trip to New England. By luck, I got to jog ‘Smile’ and I liked the way he went. Mike said he was for sale, but that was about the end of it, or so I thought.

“About a month later, Mike called me and said he was for sale as part of a package deal with Surprisingly Sweet. By pure luck, I had watched a race of hers and loved the way she closed. Then after watching more of her previous races, she fit the type of horse I love and we made the deal.

“Since getting them, both of them have required some time to get built up to where they should be physically/weight wise, especially Smile. Steve and Kathie Wiseman, and their fine crew, including Smile’s great caretaker, Mike Fowler, have done an outstanding job of getting them to where we want them to be. And while they're much closer, they aren't there yet, which would lead you to hopefully believe that better things are yet to come.”

(Cal Expo)