Goldberg back at it after well-earned freshening

Alan Goldberg has been noticeably absent at Gulfstream Park this winter, with former jockey Jorge Duarte Jr. training for Richard Santulli’s Colts Neck Stables, Goldberg’s client of 30 years.

But on Monday, Goldberg was back on the beat in Ocala, Fla., checking on horses Santulli has at Randy Bradshaw’s RKB Breaking and Training and James Crupi’s New Castle Farm. He also paid a visit to Nick de Meric’s barn at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales, browsing the 2-year-olds who would go through the auction ring Tuesday and Wednesday.

Goldberg, 69, decided to take a step back from the day-to-day rigors of training this winter and has served more as a racing manager. His last starter was Name Changer, a Santulli homebred who won the Queens County Stakes at Aqueduct on Dec. 22.

“I’m thinking of becoming an assistant trainer,” Goldberg joked. “I’ve been doing this a lot of years – getting up seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, at 4:15 to be at the barn by a quarter of – and to tell you the truth, I just got a little tired.

“This has been a good winter. I’ve been to Italy. I’ve been to Arizona.”

Goldberg and Santulli met in 1989 during Safely Kept’s 3-year-old season, when she went 8 for 9 and was voted an Eclipse Award as champion sprinter. Barry Weisbord had privately purchased the Maryland-bred filly during her 2-year-old campaign and turned her over to Goldberg that winter.

Weisbord sold a share in Safely Kept to Santulli prior to her second-place finish in the ‘89 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. She would come back to win that race a year later and eventually retired with a 24-for-31 record and $2.2 million in earnings.

Santulli went on to become a giant in business, founding NetJets and then selling it to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. In 2010, he launched the Milestone Aviation Group, a global leader in helicopter and aircraft leasing.

Goldberg has trained for Santulli since the days of Safely Kept, mainly in a private capacity, though he continued to accept horses from Weisbord and another longtime owner, Robert Masterson, up until about five years ago.

Santulli and Goldberg have had many successes together, both on the track and in the breeding industry. Their Grade 1 winners include Force the Pass, a homebred who won the 2015 Belmont Derby; Laughing, who in 2013 won the Diana and the Flower Bowl; and Tannery, winner of the 2013 E.P. Taylor.

Colts Neck Stables is based at the New Jersey farm and training center of the same name that Santulli bought in the mid-1990s. It is located seven miles from Monmouth Park.

“I used to train at the farm and ship to the Meadowlands,” Goldberg said. “The boss said maybe we should buy it, and he did. It’s worked out great.”

Duarte, 34, rode in his native Colombia at age 14 and in Panama at 15 before coming to the United States.

He won with his first U.S. mount in 2000 on Spicy Girl at Aqueduct. His final U.S. winner came in 2010 at Belmont Park on Humble Song. Both horses were owned by Santulli and trained by Goldberg.

“I was in a spill at Atlantic City in 2009 and it took me a little bit to get back,” Duarte said. “At that point I would have had to go back to Parx and start going shed row to shed row to get mounts. I told Al, ‘I like the barn, and this might be something I can be good at.’ Al said, ‘Whatever you want to do.’”

Duarte began working for Goldberg and then went to Saudi Arabia and the stable of Nicholas Bachalard, a former assistant to Christophe Clement who trained for King Abdullah.

“He started me off as a foreman and then I became his assistant,” Duarte said. “I spent four years in Saudi Arabia before coming back to the U.S. in March 2014. My first winter at Gulfstream was 2014-2015 with Al, and we clicked right away.”

Duarte went 2 for 8 as a trainer in 2015 while Goldberg served a suspension. He is 5 for 30 with a string of 20 horses this winter in Florida.

Some of the Colts Neck horses will be shipped north in the coming weeks. Although it has not yet been determined who will train them, Santulli, Goldberg, and Duarte have been discussing the situation.

“It depends on the boss,” Goldberg said. “You have to realize I work for the greatest guy in the world. I’d rather not do it, but if he asks me to train I can’t say no. I’ll do whatever he wants.”

Duarte also is on board with however things shake out.

“I’m open to anything Mr. Santulli and Al want me to do,” he said. “I’ll be the assistant. I’ll train. I’m with the team.”