Winning Bet Costs Track Official : Investigation Into Race Could Finish a Budding Career

A harness-racing official, denied a license to work at Los Alamitos this season because of a bet he cashed at another track last year, says the California Horse Racing Board has acted without sufficient grounds.

Under suspicion is David Goldschmidt, 27, whose most recent job during a seven-year association with Los Alamitos was as assistant racing secretary last year. In that capacity, his main duties were to assist in taking entries and in checking the eligibility of horses. The case leads to a more general problem that all of racing shares: What is considered ethical conduct for those who officiate the sport?

The question is different for racing than other sports, because betting is legal and, in fact, is the linchpin of the game.

Goldschmidt, a graduate of the University of Arizona’s race track industry program, went to Fairmount Park, a small Southern Illinois track near St. Louis, last December for an extended stay.

“I won’t pull any punches,” Goldschmidt said. “I went there to bet horses and try to make some money. I was real serious about it. I rented the tapes of the races so I could study them to help me with my handicapping.”

Goldschmidt’s problems began the Sunday afternoon two days before Christmas when a 29-to-1 longshot won the last race, the first three betting choices finished off the board, and the trifecta--won by picking the first three horse in correct order--paid $1,401.

Goldschmidt and a companion, Marty Bridges, who works for the Daily Racing Form, had bet $1,137 in trifecta tickets, $8 of which was on the winning combination. Their net return, after 20% for federal withholding tax had been deducted, came to $4,483.20.

Because Parkway Adios, the wire-to-wire winner of the race for $8,000 claiming horses, was a longshot who had won only once in 28 starts all year, and because the 5-to-2 favorite, Burke’s Brigade, finished last in the 10-horse field, the Illinois Racing Board called for an investigation of the race.

Illinois investigators questioned the drivers of the first three finishers--Robert Sleeth, Gary Tropp and Mike Arnold--along with Don O’Dwyer, who had driven Burke’s Brigade for the first time. Sleeth was the winning driver. Tropp was second with Breconshire at 7-1 odds and Arnold finished third with Blazer Time, who was 5-1.

Sleeth, Tropp and O’Dwyer are familiar Los Alamitos drivers. Sleeth won 49 races and was the driving champion during the Orange County track’s spring meeting last year.

Goldschmidt says he is certain he was being followed by tract security men before the Dec. 23 race. “I had hit a good-sized exacta and a trifecta before then,” he said. “And I had been seen several times in the company of the California drivers.”

Goldschmidt was not questioned regarding the race. But he was required to sign federal withholding forms at the time of the payoff and, said Bill Bissett, executive director of the Illinois Racing Board, “His name came up when we talked to the California drivers.”

Bissett said that although the initial investigation is over: “I have not seen the concluding report, and the case is not closed.”

Roger Stein, the leading trainer at Los Alamitos this season, said that the three drivers told him that Illinois authorities indicated there would be no further questioning. No suspensions have been issued and the drivers have continued to compete, Tropp in New York and Sleeth at a track in upstate Illinois. O’Dwyer returned to California, had difficulty getting drives at Los Alamitos and reportedly is headed East again.

Goldschmidt said that he worked for a few days at Los Alamitos before the season opened on Jan. 18, but when he applied for his state license: “My application was denied. I was told that I had ‘participated in a bad race in Illinois.”’

Bissett said that he had included Goldschmidt’s name in his report to Len Foote, executive secretary of the California Horse Racing Board. “We didn’t single Goldschmidt out as a target,” Bissett said. “But at one time he was a suspect, if you will, in the investigation. It was fairly routine to include his name.”

Goldschmidt, who has hired an attorney, said he asked for an immediate hearing but that Foote’s office has delayed giving him one, even though he had cooperated with California investigators.

Said Foote: “We offered him a hearing date, but he told us he was leaving town.”

Goldschmidt said: “The date they offered me was March 28. By then the season will almost be over (it ends April 27). Meantime, I’ve gone all these weeks without work. I’ve always wanted to go see Europe, so that’s what I’m going to do. I need to get away from all this. Maybe it’ll get straightened out when I get back.”

Stein, who called Goldschmidt one of Los Alamitos’ most capable officials, isn’t so sure.

“They’ve ruined this guy’s career,” the trainer said “It’s a simple case of a guy getting jobbed. It’s one questionable race, and they’re pulling at straws. Dave might be a little quirky...but no one was better at doing his job and the one thing he didn’t lack was credibility.”

Foote said: “Goldschmidt can’t be licensed until the board is totally satisfied about his integrity. Racing officials have to maintain higher standards than other employees at the track.”

Goldschmidt said there there are racing officials higher than he who have had more serious conflicts, such as owning and selling horse.

Ben Felton, a Woodland Hills attorney who has owned and bred horses since 1968, has been a member of the California Horse Racing Board for the last two years. Around the country, it is commonplace for track owners to also have racing stables.

“Conflicts of interest can get sticky.” Felton said. “On one hand, you like to have officials who are experienced horsement, people who know the game form the inside. On the other hand, is it bad for racing to have officials who might be perceived by the public as having a personal ax to grind?”

Felton said he wasn’t familiar with Goldschmidt’s case. Goldschmidt showed The Times a stack of losing tickets on the Dec. 23 trifecta totaling $1,059. “Our net winnings on the race were just a little over $3,000 for abet of more than $1,000,” he said. “About 94% of our bets were on Burke’s Brigade, the horse that finished last. Does that sound like the kind of big money you’d want to make by fixing a race?”

Goldschmidt’s first mistake in Illinois probably was associating with the California drivers. “We were staying at the same hotel, because it was reasonable and close to the track,” Goldschmidt said.

Racing officials definitely aren’t permitted to bet at tracks when they are working but the rules aren’t as clear pertaining to leisure time.

“If they stopped racing officials from betting when they aren’t working, they’d be getting rid of a lot of people,” Goldschmidt said.

Foote said that in light of the Illinois situation, he asked the Racing form to give Bridges a Los Alamitos assignment “in an area that wasn’t as sensitive as what he had been doing.” as members of the working press, Racing Form employees aren’t required to be licensed by the state.

“I’m the program director at Los Alamitos, which is the same thing I did there last season,” Bridges said.

Besides Stein, several racing officials vouched for Goldschmidt’s competence. “Dave was just about finished at Arizona at the time I arrived here,” said Gary Amundson, coordinator of the university’s School of Racing. “But he had a chance to get a job in racing before he graduated, so he took it and then hung in there and still got his degree, which is to his credit.

“Sometimes he’s said things that he shouldn’t, but that’s just part of growing up. He’s a very bright guy, and should know the ropes, so I can’t imagine him placing himself in a situation if he knew it was going to hurt him.

I’ve always considered him to be one of the budding young officials in racing.”

Right now, David Goldschmidt’s career is in danger of being nipped in the bud.

When is a racing official not a racing official? That seems to be the question.