Forster has saddled 53 stakes winners, which have accounted for more than 153 stakes victories, the vast majority of them at Hastings Park where he has produced 17 divisional championships.

Those figures grow more impressive when you consider that initially he did not want to train horses for anyone but his poor working self and didn’t saddle his first stakes winner until 1974.

He was raised in Alberta but family circumstances caused him to move to Southern California to live with his aunt and uncle when he was 11. His father was killed in the Second World War, and with two younger brothers at home there was considerable pressure on the family budget.

He recalls: “One week I was going to school in Leduc where there were fewer than 100 students in nine grades and the next week I was at North Hollywood Jr., High where there were 1,500 students in three grades. After that I was never afraid to move around. I guess you could say it gave me a kind of wanderlust.”

By 15 he was back in Alberta, working at the racetrack in Calgary. In May 2003, he will turn 67. For 52 years he has been hanging onto one the most taxing occupations known to man and has managed to establish a firm foothold on its slippery slopes.

He has a solid family: a wife who fills in as trainer, and two sons who are living up to their breeding. He has a busy six-acre farm in Langley and money in the bank from the sale of champion mare Magic Code to Japanese interests two years ago for $325,000 American dollars. The Forsters were 50% owners with Robert Chan.

After an apprenticeship on numerous tracks in Ontario, Florida, and elsewhere he found himself at Aqua Caliente in the spring of 1965 with no firm prospects for s summer meet. He sent out applications for stalls and was granted space “for a couple of cheap horses” at both Hastings Park and Fairmont Park in East St. Louis.

The decision to come here changed the course of his life. Small successes grew slowly into big ones. In 1969 he married Teressa McLean, the youngest daughter of a deep-rooted racing family. Since Dave had dual citizenship they bought acreage in Idaho, near Boise and spent winters there.

Weary of the Vancouver-Idaho treks, they purchased the farm in Langley in the fall of 1973. About that time Vancouver Island owner George Harknett approached Dave to train his horses. With a mortgage to pay and a family on the way Dave decided it was time to branch out and let some sponsors pay the bills.

His first stakes winner was George Tapp’s Sunny Valley, who was declared two-year-old champ of 1974. Neil DeMacedo, another island owner, supplied Forster with his first prominent stakes winner. First Purchase peeled off a string of stakes victories to become Horse of the Year in 1978.

In the ‘80’s and ‘90’s the champions have come at a steady clip – Wander Kind, Purl One, Highland Appeal, Go for Glory, Nicou Nicou, Tucumcari, Capilano, Apieceoftheaction, You’ve Got Action, Magic Code and Make Contact. Many of them came from the auction rings in Kentucky.

Forster is arguably the most knowledgeable trainer at Hastings on bloodlines and he has consistently plucked bargains out of the yearling sales.

Fascination for bloodlines began in the early ‘50’s when he worked for Stanley Harrison, a retired English army captain who had brought a passion for breeding when he immigrated to Saskatchewan. If training was Dave’s sweaty occupation, bloodlines became his cerebral hobby.

He had always wanted to go to Kentucky to test his theories at a yearling sale. In 1974 he scraped together $5,000 and had his eye on a chestnut colt by High Tribute. When the bidding exceeded his allotted amount Forster said to DeMacedo: “I can’t afford him but I really do like this colt!” DeMacedo got him $6,000, named him First Purchase, and had himself a champion.

First Purchase was consigned by Frank Penn, a circumstance that opened a lot of doors. Penn introduced Forster to Frank and Janis Whitham who sent him ‘second stringers’ such as Old Tucson, Second Symphony, Majestic Silence and Mt. Ouray who became stakes winners.

He bought the grand looking stakes winner Taylor from Penn’s brother John. Magic Code, the 1999 Sovereign Award winner as the top older mare in Canada, came courtesy of Sam Penn, a cousin, for a bargain $5,000. She earned $568,000.

“I like strong female families even if the first dam has not been a good runner,” says Forster. “The family can often overcome an ordinary sire. Purl One, as good a mare as I’ve ever had, was by a sire (Give Me Strength) who was a failure.”

Purl One was a British Columbia divisional champion at two, three and four.

The opening of Emerald Downs in 1996 provided some scratch for Forster’s itchy feet. Many of the horses campaign at the mile racetrack outside Seattle and he has picked up several Washington based sponsors. Wife Terri made the Forsters’ I-5 expeditions less onerous by overseeing the Emerald contingent for the first four years.

The Forster team added another generation when son Grant, now 28, decided to become a trainer. He graduated from the racetrack management course at the University of Arizona, but the stuffy smell of office furniture couldn’t overcome the intoxicating perfume of the barn.

Father and son traveled to Keeneland, Churchill Downs and Hot Springs, Arkansas last fall. They did just fine.

Second son Drew, who dabbled as track photographer at Emerald, now is taking a broadcast-journalism course.

Maybe one day he will produce an equine version of Father Knows Best.