Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Michigan's Goodell Heads East

December 5, 2006

Driver Eric Goodell is another horseman trying to make his mark at the Meadowlands.

"I know most everybody here,” said Goodell, who has nearly 3,000 career victories, most on the Michigan circuit. “Right now I'm staying at a motel. My wife [Jamie] is back home in Michigan. She just graduated nursing school. My son, Ty, is now three, and it's a good time for me to move him and get him settled in somewhere. This time around I plan on staying. I'm more focused and now I'm thinking about both my son’s future and my own. Last time I was here, he wasn't even a one-year-old yet and that was part of my problem. I went back and forth and didn't establish anything here. It's time to get it done. I'm focused and ready to make it work."

Goodell is driving at Monticello as well as trying his luck at the Meadowlands, with an eye toward Chester, Yonkers and the Delaware tracks.

"Vinny Copeland [he drove at the Meadowlands 1984-1988] and I have talked a few times since I came here,” he noted. “I talked to him an hour and a half the other day. He's constantly telling me to hang tough, to not get discouraged, and that I can do it here. It takes time and patience, and the fact that he drove here for a while really means something when he says it."