The 4th of July Racing Festival at Saratoga begins next Thursday.

With that in mind, it’s time for Daily Racing Blog’s annual salute to one of racings great characters- Mr. Harvey Pack.

Harvey moved on to the big paddock in the sky back in July of 2021 at the age of 94. Gone but not forgotten.

A pioneer in the field of on-air racing personalities, Harvey’s curmudgeonly personality and dry sense of humor made him a favorite among New York horseplayers.

Harvey was born and raised on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and he got hooked on the game by his father during racing’s golden era, when massive crowds would jam the New York tracks.

In a 1998 interview Pack recalled a time when his mother told him that he had surpassed his father with his interest in horse betting. But he didn’t know if she meant as a handicapper or as a bum.

Pack was quick to pick up on the nuances of both the Racing Form and the sociology of the betting public.

Beginning in 1998 at age 71, he hosted daily Saratoga seminars on a stage set up in the parking lot of the legendary watering hole Siro’s, which is located across the street from the track.

It was on that stage where Pack bluntly advocated for not betting on the heavy chalk at all.

A favorite rhyming quip he often repeated was; “Hardly is now a man alive, who paid the mortgage at 3-to-5.”

Once asked in 2018 if he had any regrets about his career choice. He paused briefly to consider if he would have rather done something else with his life, and then wryly said; “I wouldn’t have been able to get to the track every day, and anyway I didn’t want to work that hard.”

Thank you for your aversion to chalk Harvey, as well as the fun and joy you brought to the game, and sharing it with us.

May the horse always be with him.