Book Review: The Racetracks Of America: From The Pre-Civil War Days To The Present

[Wandering Eyes]

Stella Thayer, the president of Tampa Bay Downs and the President of the National Museum of Racing from 2005 through 2014, came across a book of historical European racetracks during her travels. Sensing that there was a void in the U.S. where no such book existed, she set out to create one. The timing was perfect as 2025 coincided with the 75-year anniversary of the museum's founding.

Brien Bouyea, Communications Director of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, and renowned racing writer Jay Hovdey were given the assignment. Considering that the book is 440 pages long, weighs 8 1/2 pounds and includes 66 chapters, each one dedicated to a track or a racing circuit, this must have been a mammoth project. To help, Bouyea, the Editor-in-Chief, and Hovdey, hired dozens of racing writers and assigned them a chapter or two to complete.

The end result was a book that the racing industry should consider a welcome addition to its historical archives. The book is comprehensive, thorough and well-written, covering everything from tracks that ran before the Civil War to tracks that are still operating today. The book also includes, along with the tens of thousands of words (and maybe more), a collection of photographs that bring so many memories back to life.

As much as you may think you know about horse racing, you will learn a lot. Did you know that in 1936 at Bay Meadows, jockey Ralph Neves was declared dead after a spill due to heart failure? But the track physician, who had come to the hospital, administered a shot of adrenaline to the jockey's heart. Neves was not only alive but returned to the track and asked to ride the rest of his mounts that day. The stewards wouldn't allow that, but allowed Neves to ride the next day.

Have you ever heard of Benning Racetrack, which opened in 1890 in Washington D.C., and turned into a place to be and to be seen in the nation's capital? Along the way there were a few problems. Workmen discovered numerous skeletons buried beneath the grandstand. It appeared that the property Benning sat on was once a cemetery for enslaved people. Then there was Theodore Roosevelt's daughter Alice. She liked to play the ponies and was spending time at the track, much to the displeasure of her father. There were reports that Roosevelt sent her away to live in New York so she couldn't go to the track any longer. But she soon resurfaced at the Benning betting windows.

Long before Richard Duchossois arrived on the scene at Arlington, the track was run by Marge Everett. In 1962, Everett created the Arlington Washington Futurity for 2-year-olds at seven furlongs. With its series of eligibility payments added to the $150,000 purse the race was worth $357,250, making it the richest event in thoroughbred history. Arlington was also home to the sport's first $1 million race, the 1981 Arlington Million, won by the great John Henry.

Those who have fond memories of the now defunct Massachusetts fair circuit will enjoy the chapter written by Lynne Snierson which covers seven different fair tracks. The fairs are best remembered for the chicanery and race fixing that the bettors actually seemed to have no problem putting up with.

“There are so many crooked things going on, it was ridiculous,” Robert Temple wrote in the Boston Herald American. “But the people don't mind. 'I don't care that it is crooked. Just tell me who's going to win the race.' That's what everyone said and that is the way it was.”

The book covers a wide range of tracks, from the smallest, most obscure tracks in the country, to the giants, Keeneland, Saratoga, Santa Anita.

It was John Morrisey, a bare-knuckle boxing champion whose nickname was Old Smoke, who brought racing to Saratoga, despite that fact that the Civil War was raging. Spirit of the Times said of the initial meeting that it “laid the foundation or a great fashionable meeting at the Springs and added “the formation of a competent club, and further proceedings would seem to be a matter of course.”

Racing at Keeneland | Coady Media

Saratoga would thrive, attracting the best horses and jockeys in the sport. Only 47, Morrisey died in 1878

Things took a turn in the wrong direction, when, after Morrisey's death, the track was run by Gottfried “Dutch Fred” Waldbaum, whose background included ties to outlaw tracks and brothels in New Jersey. Purses declined sharply under his stewardship and many top stables abandoned Saratoga.

Things got so bad under Waldbaum that Saratoga did not race in 1896.

Saratoga needed a savior and found one in William Collins Whitney. He was committed to restoring Saratoga's past glory and spared no expense in undertaking a program of capital improvements.

Anti-gambling forces were successful in their efforts to close the track in 1911 and 1912. Saratoga was back in 1913.

In 1955, the Saratoga Association was replaced by the Greater New York Association, which later became the New York Racing Association. What followed was decades of prosperity, with Saratoga once again able to attract the very best jockeys and horses in the game. American Pharoah, Buckpasser, Kelso, Native Dancer, Affirmed, Alydar, Secretariat, Go For Wand, Holy Bull and Personal Ensign were among the dozens of Hall of Fame horses that won at Saratoga during the modern era.

Saratoga would only became more popular over the years and has reached a point where more than 1 million fans make their way through the turnstiles each year.

There is a bittersweet aspect to the book, as well, a constant reminder of the way racing used to be. Jammed grandstands, people lined up ten deep on the apron, great horses running 25 times or more a year. It serves as a reminder that, well, racing used to be more fun.

The book covers numerous tracks that met their demise well before it was time for them to go.

There is Atlantic City Race Course. It opened in 1946 to a crowd estimated to be 25,000. Investors in the track included Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly. Race trains carried horseplayers from Philadelphia and New York. On Labor Day 1953, the track set a new attendance record of 33,404. The signature race of the meet was the United Nations Handicap, which attracted such horses as Round Table, Mongo, Dr. Fager and Fort Marcy.

Atlantic City was the first track to offer simulcasting, with patrons having the choice of betting on the live action or the races taking place at the Meadowlands.

But Atlantic City Race Course's days were numbered the minute casino gambling was legalized in Atlantic City. It also had a hard time competing with other tracks in the Mid-Atlantic region that had extended their meets to overlap with Atlantic City's. The last regular meeting took place in 1997. For the next 18 years it held short meets, normally three or four days, which was necessary in order for them to have a license to import simulcast signals from other tracks. In 2015, it was announced that the track was closing for good.

Then there's Calder, which opened in 1971. Sharing the Florida racing dates with Hialeah and Gulfstream, Calder lacked the charm and beauty of its racetrack neighbors. It was a blue collar racetrack that operated during under the scorching summertime sun in South Florida.

Churchill Downs would take ownership of Calder and it soon became apparent that casino wagering was more important to that company than horse racing was. Just shy of its 50^th anniversary, Calder held its last day of live racing on Nov. 28, 2020. Churchill had found a loophole in the law that allowed it to maintain its casino license if it offered any form of pari-mutuel wagering. Racing was out, replaced by low budget jai alai.

It seems that for every Oaklawn Park, Saratoga, Keeneland, Churchill and Del Mar, all of whom are thriving, there are five tracks that couldn't make it in the current gambling market, which began to change when lotteries began to pop up all over the map in the sixties. In “The Racetracks of America, you'll read about the sad stories that are Ak-Sar-Ben, Bowie, Detroit Race Course, Garden State, Hialeah, Rockingham Park, Suffolk Downs and more.

The book is for racing fans, in particular those who are interested in the history of the sport. You'll no doubt enjoy it. Just don't drop it on your foot.

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