Van Berg: Racing’s true stayer
Jack Van Berg, like many of the horses he trained, showed both early speed and staying power.
The former was necessary, legendary trainer Marion Van Berg bringing his son along in the family business. The latter proved essential, Jack going into professional freefall late in life, saddling only one winner from
121 starts in 2013.
Even as his health declined, Van Berg never strayed from the work ethic he learned from his father back home in Nebraska. Jack could be seen around Oaklawn Park riding a scooter, trying to keep pace in a sport that entices many and rewards relatively few. Himself compared to John Wayne, Van Berg could be seen wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap extolling the presidency of Donald Trump.
A combination of illnesses slowed Van Berg for good Dec.
27 at age 81, but not until his horses earned $1 million on the nation’s racetracks for the first time since 2000.
Tears flowed freely even as laughter pervaded the air during a celebration of life for Van Berg on Monday in Horner Hall at Hot Springs Convention Center. Hall of Fame jockeys Chris McCarron and Gary Stevens were among the speakers. Sighted in the crowd were Hall of Fame trainers Wayne Lukas, Bill Mott and Neil Drysdale.
Oaklawn media personality Nancy Holthus called Van Berg “the ultimate horseman, a horseman’s horseman. He had a way of taking you under his wing and making you feel better.”
Mott, trainer of two-time Horse of the Year Cigar and other champions, apprenticed under Van Berg, as did Jack himself with his father. Both Van Bergs sailed into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Jack in 1985, 15 years after his father. Jack won the 1984 Preakness with the enigmatic Gate Dancer and achieved defining success later in the decade with Alysheba, the first horse to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Breeders’ Cup Classic.
“He liked to teach,” former Oaklawn announcer Frank Mirahmadi said Monday, “and anyone willing to listen was able to learn.”
Eclipse Award winner in
1984, Van Berg in 1987 became the first trainer to win 5,000 races, ranking No. 4 all time with 6,523 victories. His horses earned more than $85 million, although Van Berg wondered “where did it all go?” after declaring bankruptcy in 2012 over a failed land deal in California.
At his peak, Van Berg ran lots of horses at lots of tracks. His single-season record of 496 victories in 1976 stood for 28 years.
“Jack pioneered the concept of multiple stables,” said Mirahmadi. “Someone asked him once, ‘How many tracks do you have horses?’ Jack said, ‘How many are there?”’
Van Berg jump-started his career after moving his base from California to Arkansas, where in better times he won the 1976 Apple Blossom Handicap with Summertime Promise and the 1981 Arkansas Derby with Bold Ego.
Although winless at Oaklawn in 2014 and winning only one race in 2015, Van Berg trained 14 winners in 2016 (eighth in the local standings) and 20 last season (sixth). He never achieved his dream of “one more (Kentucky) Derby horse,” but sent out One Dreamy Dude (10th) in the 2017 Arkansas Derby. Two of his honorary pallbearers, Hot Springs native Jerry Caroom and Mike Waters became two of Van Berg’s major clients.
“He made us all better horsemen and made us all harder workers,” said Holthus, wife of trainer Paul Holthus.
Racing personality Chris Kotulak collaborated with Van Berg on the biography “JACK, From Grit to Glory — A Lifetime of Mentoring, Dedication and Perseverance.”
“Yes, I’m the guy who wrote the book,” Kotulak said Monday with a shrug. “There could be 40 new chapters, maybe 400 more, depending how many people knew Jack.”
Turning poetic, Kotulak said, “There isn’t a trainer from coast to coast who upon hearing (Van Berg’s) name wouldn’t stand up and give you a toast.”