Five new honorees will be inducted into the Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame on Saturday at Retama Park.
The new members are racing legends Harold V. Goodman and Jeff Carr, plus three horses. In addition, former Texas Sen. O. H. “Ike” Harris of Dallas will receive the JoAnn Weber Distinguished Service Award.
Goodman, a prominent horse owner and breeder, was 1994 Texas Breeder of the Year. His Two Altazano, one of the few Texas-bred fillies to win a Grade 1, captured four graded thoroughbred stakes 15 years ago.
In ’92, Goodman purchased an interest in A.P. Indy, the Breeders’ Cup Classic champ and Horse of the Year. He succumbed to cancer on Jan. 13, 1995, one day before he was scheduled to accept the award as the top Texas breeder of ’94 and the award for Two Altazano as the year’s champion Texas-bred 3-year-old filly.
Goodman’s son, Harold, will accept the Hall of Fame award for his father at the South Texas track.
Jeff Carr, a lawyer, farmer, rancher and active in the horse business, was instrumental in forming Retama Partners, Ltd., serving as president, which constructed Retama in ’94. The track’s inaugural meeting followed the next year.
Carr was a member of the American Quarter Horse Association for 30 years and belonged to the Texas Thoroughbred Breeders Association for 16 years.
Representing their late father at the ceremony will be Jay Carr and Catherine Carr Davis.
The three Texas-bred horses that will be honored are:
Got Koko, 4-year-old filly that captured the Grade 1 Lady’s Secret in ’03 at Santa Anita, earned three Texas championships, including Horse of the Year. She banked $960,946, eclipsing Two Altazano’s record for Texas fillies of $709,724.
Pass Over, the ’73 quarter horse 2-year-old world champion filly that also earned top honors as a 3-year-old.
At one point she was the leading money winning female.
Top Deck, an unraced thoroughbred injured as a young foal, became a famous sire of quarter horses. Two sons
were inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame -- Go Man Go and Moon Deck.
Harris, accepting the Distinguished Service Award named for the first Hall of Fame director, chaired the State Interim Committee on Horse Racing and Pari-mutuel Betting in 1971 that laid out the reasons why Texas should have pari-mutuel horse racing.
He sponsored and helped pass the bill in ’87 that enabled Texas to resume pari-mutuel wagering.
Emcee for the gala, which runs from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, also will feature cocktails, a gourmet buffet dinner, wine tasting, a silent auction and nine races for Texas-breds is Doug Vair, Retama’s publicity and marketing director.
Previous inductees include famous riders Jerry Bailey, Angel Cordero Jr. and Bill Shoemaker, elite trainers D. Wayne Lukas, Carl Nafzger and Max Hirsch, and his ’46 Triple Crown champ Assault.
Tickets are $125 per person. All proceeds benefit the non-profit organization aiming to build the Hall of Fame at Retama.
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