Burgart Sounds Call to All Handicappers

On Saturday morning, not long after he has called Friday night’s last race at Los Alamitos Race Course, announcer Ed Burgart gets out of bed, grabs his racing sheets and heads back to the track.

For the past 10 years, Burgart has hosted a free 10 a.m. handicapping class at Los Alamitos, inviting jockeys and trainers, handicappers and grooms and the public to deliver tips on how to pick a winner.

But for the most part, his students remain the race course’s old guard: horsemen, retirees and regular gamblers. “They are pretty much down-to-earth horse players,” Burgart said.

Burgart, 45, is one of the best jack-of-all-trades in the horse-racing business. He calls the races each night and writes a daily handicap for local newspapers. Weekday mornings you can usually find him at the ground floor track office, watching the daily draws for racing positions, or down by the barns at 7 a.m. checking out new arrivals.

Like so many long-time workers at the track, Burgart was smitten by the industry at a young age. He saw his first horses race at age 4, when his father took him to the track. By the time he was 10, Burgart knew what he wanted to do for a living.

He attended UCLA “in the Bill Walton-era” and was the sports editor of the Daily Bruin student newspaper, graduating in 1974. He worked for a small daily newspaper in Costa Mesa for a few years and in 1977 got his first job at Los Alamitos, where he coordinated radio and television coverage. He filled in as an announcer on a few races at Bay Meadows in San Francisco two years later and in 1980, when veteran Los Alamitos announcer Bobby Doyle retired, Burgart got the call.

“Ed Burgart is an outstanding announcer,” said track majority owner Edward C. Allred. “He is an astute handicapper and a total workhorse. The fans love him. He puts on a great handicapping seminar and he is almost indispensable.”

While he has become adept at handicapping quarter horse races, Burgart rarely bets on them. His personal passion is following the thoroughbreds at Del Mar, his favorite track.

“I would prefer to bet when I am not working,” he said. “When you bet on horses you are calling, you lose perspective. I know some people think that when I call a particularly exciting race at the track that I must have bet on the horse and that is why I am so excited. That just isn’t true at all.”

Burgart sees his handicapping class as a way to attract new fans to the sport, though he says he has been frustrated that many new faces haven’t turned out.

“It’s a pretty steady clientele,” he said.

Still, in an effort to attract a younger audience, Heath Taylor, 27, one of the youngest trainers at the track, is scheduled to be guest speaker today.

But even if no one else showed up, Burgart would be there, friends say, because he loves his work.

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Allred will start his plan to expand the entertainment appeal of the facility by adding a boxing card on Aug. 21.

Promoter Roy Englebrecht, who puts on the monthly boxing card at the Irvine Marriott, has arranged six bouts that will be held in a boxing ring set up in the outdoor grandstand area about a hundred feet from the finish line. The boxing card will begin at 6:30 p.m., a half hour before the first post. The four-round bouts will continue throughout the night’s racing card.

The boxing card is free with a paid $3 general admission ticket.

Allred has long contended if the track is to survive it has to become more than just a place to make bets. He opened the swank Vessels Club restaurant in 1996, has sought to attract businesses to hold corporate meetings at the track, and the bill for the ongoing refurbishing of the entire grounds has topped $14 million.

Additionally, the track recently hired a marketing director in the hopes of improving group sales and attracting patrons who would not otherwise visit the course.

Notes

Although she spends most of her time riding in Texas and Oklahoma, veteran jockey Tammy Purcell is leaving her mark on Los Alamitos. On July 18, Purcell became the first female jockey to win four races in the same evening, bringing three quarter horses and an Arabian across the finish line first. She also had a second-place finish. Danny Cordoza set the track record of six victories in a single night in 1981. . . . Joe Badilla entered the meet this weekend atop the jockey standings with 61 victories. Eddie Garcia Sr. ranked second (58). Garcia recently became the sixth rider in track history to win 1,500 races. . . . Going into Friday’s races, veteran trainer Blane Schvaneveldt was still looking for career stakes win No. 300. . . . A total of $1,675,349 was wagered on July 18, the top handle of the meet. About 75% of the take was from off-track betting.