Stan Bergstein, harness racing’s “Mr. Integrity,” celebrates his 85th birthday on Friday.
No living person has contributed more to the betterment of harness racing than Bergstein. He is not only the most respected voice in the Standardbred world, but he is known and admired in other areas of the horse world. He certainly holds a place of great esteem in the Thoroughbred business.
Bergstein has been the Executive Vice President of Harness Tracks of America for almost a half-century and there is virtually no part of the sport that hasn’t felt his influence. If you had to pick one word to describe his contributions it would be “innovation.” He came up with so many new ideas long ago that people today have no clue that Bergstein was the man with the idea many years ago.
For the past two decades, he has hammered the need to assure the public and the participants that harness racing is conducted with integrity. While others have taken rather squishy stands on integrity, Bergstein has been forceful. There are some people who are plainly tired of his “constant carping” on this subject; we may assume that these are often people who feel threatened by stronger regulation in racing. After all, bank robbers really don’t want more cops on street corners.
Stan Bergstein could have ridden off into the Arizona sunset many years ago, but he continues to fight the good fight, defying age. I’ve heard some people make statements that their career is behind them and they really don’t much care about the future of harness racing because it won’t affect them. Bergstein has a career of more than six decades in harness racing, but he’s looking forward and doing his best to make sure the business survives.
If you want to drop him a birthday wish, his e-mail is [email protected]
Happy Birthday from Canada
Happy Birthday from Canada Mr. Bergstein :
In addition to the personal email sent to you I will add a few comments . I remember you well as the announcer at Northville Downs in Michigan in the 1950's. My father raced a few horses there and whenever one of them won he would purchase a recording of the race which came out in the form of a 78 rpm record disc .They were great .
It was my job to play the record when company came .I still have the records but can no longer play them as we have NO record player .We have been overtaken by too much technology !