longest drive for a day at the races

[thespaah]

longest drive taken for a day at the races..
In keeping with the visiting race tracks in a somewhat unusual manner genre, I'd like to head down a slightly different road.
What is the longest anyone has driven in miles( or time) to get to a racetrack for the day. To narrow down the responses, the only condition is that you returned home the same day. No overnight stay.
Mine has a bit of a story...
I was living in Hilton Head Island, SC...1990...I looked at my road atlas to see where was the closest parimutuel facility to my location that was taking bets on the Preakness. First choice. Orange Park dog track near Jax, FL..Call down there. No luck. No simulcasting there....Ok. I am not going to Baltimore cuz it's 620 miles away..Next....So I land on what was then Birmingham Turf Club in Alabama....
I figured 410 miles..Hmm. I can do that in 5.5 hrs if I avg 70 mph...So I jump in the car and drive out. I get there at 3.00 pm local time. Bet a few live races, then the Preakness. Had a profitable day. Got in the car, stopped for a bite. Made it home by 2 am....Oh, stopped in Atlanta to catch 7 innings of Braves Vs Pirates....Ticket cost 6 bucks.

[lamboguy]

if they don't show Calder tomorrow i am going to have to go about 1800 miles to see a horse run

[wiffleball whizz]

Not really to severe I guess but Edison nj to Pocono downs....2.5 hours not the end of the world by any stretch Of the imagination

[thespaah]

if they don't show Calder tomorrow i am going to have to go about 1800 miles to see a horse run
Where are you? Northern Manitoba?

[SandyW]

I drove from Las Vegas to Hollywood Park in 1969 to watch a harness race in which there was a horse going for his 27th win in a row. He won and then I drove back to Las Vegas that same night.

I have been trying to think of the name of that horse for years ??

[Tom]

Nevele Pride?

[theiman]

I drove from Las Vegas to Hollywood Park in 1969 to watch a harness race in which there was a horse going for his 27th win in a row. He won and then I drove back to Las Vegas that same night.

I have been trying to think of the name of that horse for years ??

Around that time I think it was a pacer named Overcall. Del Inkso was the trainer driver. I think he won 30 in a row, before either losing or retiring. I started following harness racing the next year, 1970, but remember reading about him.

[Mr_Ed]

Mid 80's me and a buddy leave a Chicago burb early AM to see the World Trotting Derby at DuQuoin...........about 325 miles away.

Stop at a little diner in DuQuoin only to look at the table mat to note we had gone down the wrong weekend.

Drove back the 325 miles to make Sportsman's Park 1st race.

:bang:

[burnsy]

2009 Preakness, drove from Upstate Ny (Saratoga), to Norfolk Va. dropped my daughter off, let her use my car after she dropped me off at the airport to rent one. I got in the rental car and drove north to Baltimore, saw Rachel beat Mine That Bird....with ZZ top in the infield. Got in the car after the last race and went back to Norfolk.......it was not from my home and back but it had to be close to a 1000 miles. But it was a great day, a great race and something i'll never forget.

[Dan Montilion]

Not sure about getting to the track. However, there has been some long, long, long 15 minute rides home.

[pondman]

Drove from Davis, Ca. to Salem, Oregon to bet a horse.

[Hoofless_Wonder]

Mid 80's me and a buddy leave a Chicago burb early AM to see the World Trotting Derby at DuQuoin...........about 325 miles away.

Stop at a little diner in DuQuoin only to look at the table mat to note we had gone down the wrong weekend.

Drove back the 325 miles to make Sportsman's Park 1st race.

:bang:

Classic. DuQuoin - very fast track, and no dough in the pools. My buddy Herbie from FP hit the double one day at Duq, took down half the pool for about $278, and the cashier had to get the manager to take a draw to give him the cash.

As for me, I've put in some long days driving for:

Peoria ---> Ellis Park and back, about 11 hours driving
Peoria ---> Keeneland and back, about 12 hours driving
St. Louis ---> West Memphis Dog Track, pre-season game at Liberty Bowl and back, about 9 hours driving
I would say several dozen trips from Peoria to Fairmount or Chicago prior to the OTB opening up.....

[Ocala Mike]

Kansas City, MO to Omaha, NE, midsummer, 1965. I was young and in the service; no tracks nearby then. Ak-Sar-Ben was the nearest place for action.

[Valuist]

I remember one winter driving down to Cincinnati to bet Turfway (pre-full card simulcasting days) for a weekend. Only problem was it was about 2 or 3 above zero and Turfway cancelled. So I then drove north to Beulah. Needless to say, Beulah wouldn't cancel. And they had the Gulfstream races.

Driving to Canterbury might've been a few more miles.

[tbwinner]

Last year first weekend of August my buddy had been pestering me and pestering me to go out to Saratoga with him that weekend. I had a tight work schedule but said to him that Thursday if I make $3,000 at the track I will fly out TONIGHT. It was fate...I hit the early pick four at AP for $4-something thousand and was on a plane to Baltimore at around 7:30 that evening. Drove up with him from Baltimore to Saratoga Springs (took about 6 hours) Friday morning and enjoyed a nice weekend of racing.

The unfortunate thing is I would have hit the late pick 3 for $1,400~ a few times , if I didn't have to scurry off to the airport!! :mad:

[depalma113]

Ocala to Miami and back to watch the 1994 Florida Derby. Of course I did it for work as I was covering Holy Bull at the time.

[NJ Stinks]

Once upon a time when I was young and restless, a buddy named Kenny and I drove down to Bowie on a weekday in February. It took around 3 hours to drive the 150 miles each way.

Short story about the day. Kenny wasn't big on playing the horses but he was willing to go if we went to Annapolis for dinner after the races. (Neither of us had been to Annapolis.) I agreed to have dinner there.

Going into the 9th and final race, I was 0 for the day and down to my last $5 from a $60 bankroll. Kenny started with about the same but was holding back $35 for dinner and tolls. The horses come onto the track and we decide to go out to the rail for a change and get a closer look. (It's close to dark and it's cold!) Anyway, we distinctly hear the guy on the lead pony for the #9 horse tell some people near us to "have those white envelopes ready". Kenny and I look at each other and wonder if that means what we think it means? :confused:

Anyway, after some serious negotiation on my part :) , Kenny puts $30 to win on the #9 who is now the 2-1 favorite. We watched the race outside at the wire and could not tell who won. Turns out the #9 won by a nose and paid $5.60 to win! Fish in Annapolis that night could not have been tastier! :ThmbUp:

[SandyW]

Around that time I think it was a pacer named Overcall. Del Inkso was the trainer driver. I think he won 30 in a row, before either losing or retiring. I started following harness racing the next year, 1970, but remember reading about him.

Bingo, that's the horse, I thought it was Inko but I was not sure and could not remember Overcall for the life of me.

Nevele Pride won a lot of races, but I don't know if he ever raced at Hollywood.

Overcall

Del loves to recall the ’69 season when he drove Overcall to 22 straight wins in Free For All competition.

“Overcall was such a handy horse,” Insko recalled. “He’d help you. I think his best race was the last of his career when he won the American Pacing Classic at Hollywood Park. He won by several lengths. Billy Haughton was driving Rum Customer and he pulled up next to me and said, ‘Now I know how you won so many with that little devil.’ ”

Overcall’s win streak was actually 22 races because it started, Insko points out, at the end of 1968 when Overcall beat Best Of All in the American Pacing Classic at Hollywood Park.

[JohnGalt1]

When Ladbroke ran Canterbury Downs into bankruptcy I decided to drive to Prairie Meadows on a mid summer day. This was before PrM had a casino so the purses were $3,000-$4,000 per race. The first race was for horses 7 years old and older. Half the horses were former Canterbury horses

I live in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis so the drive was 4 and half hours one way. I figured I'd get a motel room on the way home. It being Saturday there was not a room to be had. I stopped at one town after another, only a manger was available so I kept driving, finally giving up two hours from home

I got home about 3 AM. I've never been so tired in my life.

Needless to say I never did that again.