by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — Dave Offenberg has a piece of advice for anyone who is not enjoying life with the Standardbreds.

“To me it’s just a whole lot of fun,” Offenberg said. “If you can’t have fun in harness racing you don’t belong doing it.”

Having fun is a big reason the 67-year-old Offenberg has remained an amateur driver — and a fairly successful one at that — for the past 18 years. He is also an owner who had a share of 1996 Hambletonian winner Continentalvictory and former world champions Beat The Wheel and Angus Hall, so there is money involved.

But when it comes to being in the sulky, he does it because he loves it.

Offenberg is coming off another solid year in which he finished sixth in total points earned during the North American Amateur Drivers Association’s 12-race Fall Series. He won the $15,000 final at Yonkers Raceway on Dec. 5, driving King’s Cavalier, the same horse he also drove to victory on Nov. 22 at Harrah’s Philadelphia in the 1-1/4 mile $15,000 Silver Cup final in the C.K.G. Billings Series.

King’s Cavalier was purchased by Offenberg in July and he lauded trainer Eric Abbatiello for getting him ready.

Billings Series photo

Dave Offenberg has won 50 races in his career as an amateur driver.

“It took a while to get him right, but Eric got him right,” Offenberg said. “You like to get the horse that’s hot at the right time. I was very fortunate. Eric had him right at the right time and we did well.”

Offenberg won four of 50 starts last season, and his best effort came two years earlier when he won both the spring and fall NAADA series. But the temptation has never been there to drive professionally.

“To go pro you’ve got to put your time in and you’ve got to do it every day and start at a local track someplace,” he said. “Usually it’s not in the New York-New Jersey area. You go to some place like Monticello or smaller tracks in terms of the purses. I had a fulltime job making money, raising a family. It was never on my bucket list.”

Dave was owner of Allister Business Systems, an office equipment company from which he retired several years ago. But trotters have been in his blood since growing up on Long Island, when his dad would take him to Yonkers and Roosevelt.

In 1980, at age 32, he got involved in a partnership to buy a few horses. Several years later he struck out on his own, “got involved in some really good horses and was kind of lucky along the way.”

Offenberg started out with pacers until owner Myron Bell introduced him to trainer Ron Gurfein at a Harrisburg sale. Gurfein steered him toward trotters and the first horse he bought was Beat The Wheel. By the third year he put some partnerships together and bought four babies. One was Continentalvictory, who remains the last female trotter to win the Hambletonian.

When Offenberg turned 50, he began to sit behind horses and was talked into amateur driving by one of his partners who was already an amateur. His first race was at Freehold the following year.

“The fellow who put me into it said, ‘Once you drive in the race you’re either going to get off the horse and say ‘I’m never doing this again.’ Or you’re going to say ‘Gee I really like this and this is really neat,’” Offenberg said. “Obviously it was the latter and I’ve been driving horses ever since and basically been having a good time. I still own horses but the fun part of it at this point is the driving.”

Dave recalls his first time in the sulky as “a great adrenaline rush.”

“I really enjoyed it,” he said. “Some people are really scared. I’m never scared. You’re always concerned. Any time you sit behind a horse you’ve got to be a little concerned. I’ve done OK, I’m not setting the world on fire, but I’ve won a few races every year.

“A lot depends on the horse, if you have a good horse you’re going to do well and if you don’t have a good horse you won’t do well. That’s just the way it is.”

Geri Schwarz photo

All four of Dave Offenberg’s driving wins in 2015 came with King’s Cavalier.

Offenberg has never driven more than 50 races in a year, not be design, but just because that’s how it worked out. His sixth-place finish in NAADA this year came with him racing in just seven of the 12 legs.

He now lives in Monroe Township, N.J., and is still busy despite his retirement. He has eight horses in his Allister Stables — the name being derived from his business — and is also chairman of the Monmouth/Ocean Counties Food Bank in Neptune.

“We actually distribute about 12 million pounds of food to about 300 different agencies throughout different counties,” he said. “We’re in a culinary program to teach kids how to become chefs, get them employed. We give income tax assistance to poor people who have refunds coming that didn’t know it.”

That’s not the only time Offenberg donates of himself. He volunteered at the USTA Driving School the past two years and says he will likely do it again this summer.

“We take students out on horses, give them some pointers,” he said. “They have sulkies with two seats so it’s kind of nice to be sitting with somebody who has experience doing this. I think the fact we’re not professionals makes them a little more comfortable in terms of ‘Gee I can do this as well.’ They can open up and ask whatever questions are on their mind.”

In between his volunteer work, Dave will still find time to drive. And while the urge to be a professional has never been there, the desire to test himself against the best in the business has been.

“What I really wanted to do when I first stated driving was to be able to drive against the pros, which I’ve done a few times, and I’ve beaten them a few times, that was my goal,” Offenberg said. “That, to me, was a kick when you go out and be competitive with these guys and do well. But to do it as a living, is different than doing it for fun.”

He also goes against the pros to keep himself humble.

“Every couple of years I’ll be at the Meadowlands or Yonkers,” he said. “It kind of brings me back to earth, to see the tremendous skill difference between us and them.”

Offenberg has no plans for his driving future. He is just taking it one year at a time.

“As long as it’s fun and I’m competitive and I’m not out there doing anything stupid, I’m going to keep doing it,” he said. “I told someone when the time comes, somebody tap me on the shoulder and say ‘It’s time.’ But as long as I’m amassing my share of wins and I’m competitive out there and I like doing it, I’m going to continue to do it.”