Saturday night’s (Dec. 1) featured pace at Cal-Expo 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 sportswriter for 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,” Morrow 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.”
Morrow 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,” Lesser 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.”
Bridges 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
Allmyxsliventexas, 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.
Allmyxsliventexas is a five-year-old homebred son of Hi Ho Silverheels who races for Wayne and Rod Knittel. Bob Johnson is the conditioner and Mooney Svendsen will once again handle the lines.
Sent off the 1-2 choice in a conditioned event on Nov. 10, the bay performer made it look like an overlay as he took complete command up front turning for home and waltzed home with 4-1/2 lengths to spare.
Despite having the outside post in a field of eight in last week’s Open, Allmyxsliventexas once again rewarded the chalk players by going coast-to-coast for a three-length decision over a good racetrack.
Im 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.
(Cal-Expo)