by Steve Wolf, for Harnesslink.com

Jupiter, FL — Harness racing Hall of Famer Louis P. Guida, 81, died Jan. 30, 2015, according to family members. He had been ill for a number of months.

USTA photo

Louis P. Guida

He had owned all or part of 21 harness horses that each won a million dollars, not bad for a kid from Jersey City who first worked shining shoes in his father’s barber shop, and wound up a vice president of Merrill Lynch, the first broker ever elevated to that executive position.

Not bad either for an executive who did not earn an MBA at Harvard or a doctorate at Princeton, but instead dropped out of high school and worked days as a laborer and nights learning television repair.

That was 1952, and Mr. Guida, then 19, soon opened a TV repair shop with $800 he earned working the day shift.

He soon expanded into multiple shops, and invested the profits into a state-of-the-art car wash. Both businesses flourished, and Mr. Guida sold them and founded Fidelity Finance, which ultimately employed a staff of more than 100.

He sold Fidelity in 1966, after a customer whose Cadillac was damaged when another car jumped the track at his car wash and injured Mr. Guida, told him he didn’t need that kind of hassle and persuaded him to sell the wash and join Merrill’s Trenton office.

That was 1967, and Mr. Guida began in mergers and acquisitions. In 1970, his fourth year in that job, he got a $250,000 finder’s fee for his work on the $90 million merger of Caesars Palace and Lum’s Restaurants, and he began looking for a tax shelter.

“I found the perfect one,” he told Sports Marketing News years later. “I tried harness racing, and it was the greatest tax shelter in the world. I lost everything I owned.”

But not for long. Instead of buying cheap claimers or using 90 second decisions to buy yearlings costing hundreds of thousands, Guida formed Louis P. Guida Enterprises, applied sound business practices, and interested new investors.

“I’m selling all my 5’s and 6’s,” Guida once said, “and I am only buying 9’s and 10’s from now on.”

Then 35 years ago, with his stable dominating both the trotting and pacing gait in North America, Mr. Guida owned, partnered and syndicated horses that won 14 major divisional championships and most of the sport’s major stakes races.

In 1979 Mr. Guida purchased half of the undefeated 2-year-old pacing colt Niatross from trainer Clint Galbraith and co-owner Elsie Berger for an unheard of price of $1 million. At age three Niatross won the Pacing Triple Crown and Mr. Guida then stamped the term “syndication” in harness racing as the colt went on to breed numerous world champions.

Mr. Guida and his associates then went on to become world renowned with champions Mack Lobell, Chairmanoftheboard, Nihilator, Pershing Square and a host of other great horses.

Over the years Mr. Guida was honored by the industry with the United States Harness Writers Association Good Guy Award, the USHWA President’s Award, and the 1991 Stanley F. Bergstein Messenger Award. He was then inducted in the sport’s Hall of Fame in Goshen, N.Y., in 2008.

He had been involved with various sports since childhood. As a young baseball player, he was scouted by the New York Giants and asked to join their farm team in Jersey City, N.J.; however, due to his mother’s disapproval he declined the offer.

He claimed that the smartest move he ever made in sports was to purchase the Philadelphia Eagles football team, and his dumbest move was selling it.

Mr. Guida also dabbled in the Thoroughbred business in the United States in partnership with Dr. Philip McCarthy, a prominent veterinarian.

He also formed a group called the Laurel Guida Group, and purchased 50 percent interest in Laurel Racetrack and a percentage of ownership in Pimlico Racetrack, where the Preakness, part of the Thoroughbred Triple Crown, is raced. The group later sold their interest to Magna Entertainment; however, they retained rights to future gambling outlets.

But Mr. Guida did not stop there, moving to Italy and taking young trainer Jerry Riordan with him. He began breeding and racing harness horses in Europe and his success continued. He owned Lisa America, who won 22 times, including the European Grand Circuit series and retired from racing with $1.9 million in earnings.

Mr. Guida is survived by his wife, Rose; children, Mark (Sharon), Jayme (David Marad) and Cindy (Mark Deleo); and four granddaughters.

Service arrangements will be posted when finalized.