They Need To THINK BIG In Vermont!

[Thomas Roulston]

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/local/ci_28461521/green-mountain-racetrack-owners-hope-concert-is-spark

I've been to the long-defunct Green Mountain Racetrack in Vermont - in 1976, the year of its last thoroughbred meet.

And I say if it can be revived, it should be revived on a grand scale. This is what I have in mind:

A super-sized new track, 1 3/8 miles in circumference (the original was 6 1/2 furlongs), making it the second-largest dirt track in North America, trailing only Belmont Park (1 1/2 miles) and ahead of Colonial Downs (1 1/4 miles), with a unique, "double far turn" turf course (as Hawthorne Race Course very briefly had in the late '80s), measuring 1 1/8 miles using the long far turn (1,320 feet from the finish line, as the dirt track will be, as at Hawthorne) and 1 mile using the short far turn (length of stretch: 990 feet, making the latter identical to Ellis Park's turf course). Distance from the finish line to the clubhouse turn: 560 feet on the main track, 330 feet on the turf - allowing for a Belmont-like chute for 7 and 7 1/2 furlongs (much as 1 mile and 1 1/16 miles are run on the latter's Widener Turf Course). The main track is also to be equipped with a 3-furlong "Nursery Course," a Keeneland-esque 5-furlong diagonal chute, and a (formerly) Laurel-inspired diagonal chute (out of which Spectacular Bid won the 1978 Laurel Futurity) going out to 1 1/4 miles (with a conventional 1 1/16-mile backstretch chute). The turns on the main track would be 1,750 feet - 8 feet longer than that of the new Gulfstream, and second only to Belmont's 2,020-foot turns - with widths of 120 feet (same as the Derby Start at Churchill Downs) on the main track, and approximately 115.57 feet on the turf course, providing for 16-horse fields at most distances, and up to 20-horse fields at some distances! (Woodbine has toyed with the idea of 20-horse fields at various times on its E.P. Taylor Turf Course, but has not run any as yet).

But wait, it only gets even more grand: Install a retractable roof over the track, so that there will never be a race taken off the turf, and turf racing can be conducted year-round.

Why should American horsemen have to go to Dubai to enjoy Dubai-worthy splendor?

[andtheyreoff]

There's a better chance of a track using unicorns instead of thoroughbreds than of a track that big ever using a retractable roof. Do you have any idea how big that roof would have to be?

[elhelmete]

You think riders get confused at Los Al? This sounds like a bowl of spaghetti.

Someone on this board sketched out a similar mega-track one time and posted it here.

It was a massively confusing set of marker poles, starting lines, odd chutes, etc.

[QuarterCrack]

I remember that other one that was posted; I sketched this one out quickly based on the description in the original post... Layoutwise, it's not as complex as it first sounds. I attached the picture below.

[johnhannibalsmith]

The article makes it seem pretty likely that the only possible thing racing there at any point will be snowmobiles.

[elhelmete]

The article makes it seem pretty likely that the only possible thing racing there at any point will be snowmobiles.

What's the takeout on that?

[OTM Al]

They manage at Longchamp just fine

http://www.lescourseshippiques.com/cache/images/hippodrome/113/420_221/hippodrome.jpg

[thespaah]

The problem is the location. Pownall. VT is the middle of nowhere.

[Zaf]

The problem is the location. Pownall. VT is the middle of nowhere.

YEP

[Zaf]

Been there once for dog racing. Nice experience. Vermont is such a beautiful state, so much to offer for tourists. Was there a few months ago, Flynn Theater in Burlington for a concert :ThmbUp: :jump:

[Thomas Roulston]

It was me who posted something very similar a while back - but now I would modify it to eliminate the separate Main Turf Course and Inner Turf Course, which would instead use the same track except at the far turn, as existed at Hawthorne very briefly in 1987-88.

And a beaucoup of thanks to Quarter Crack for posting it. You beat me to the punch - I was working on drawing up a diagram of my own and then posting it here.

Actually there would be a chute at the end of the backstretch on the turf course, fashioned by extending the outside fence - and also a 2 1/2 furlong diagonal chute on the turf course, having a 30-degree angle (the backstretch turf-course chute featuring a 22.5-degree angle), similar to the one Colonial Downs has. This would also - and perhaps more commonly - be used for 1 7/16 miles on turf; and yes, there would be one-turn, 1m70y races on the dirt, as there would be a full 50-foot run-up, while at 1 1/16 miles the run-up would be similar to that of the one-turn 1m races at Gulfstream.

[castaway01]

Well, everyone needs a hobby...

[LottaKash]

To QuarterCrack..
Please learn how to resize your photo's..

[burnsy]

Full Tilt Boogie baby! 8/22...ZZ Top and Friends!

http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/06/zz_top_to_headline_full_tilt_b.html

[Redbullsnation]

Boy oh boy. Looks like a wild fantasy. A track like that in Vermont?? HAHAHAHAHA

[rastajenk]

Calvin Coolidge would not approve.

[Milkshaker]

Boy oh boy. Looks like a wild fantasy. A track like that in Vermont?? HAHAHAHAHA

Any track in Vermont would be a wild fantasy to me.

I have driven by there on Rt. 7 through Pownal and still have visions of what a great combination racetrack/equestrian event facility that place would make.

So rural and beauitful in that part of the Green Mountain State. I can only imagine what it was like on a warm summer night like this in the '60s to be watching races there, with the sun setting behind the grandstand at about 9:00 p.m.

Oddball facts:

1) One of the longest stretches in America at the time.

2) They were the first track to have Sunday racing (1964?). Old timers have told me they used to get busloads of bettors from as far away as Philly on Sundays--the only racing on the Lord's Day on the entire eastern seaboard.

3) I know some real degenerates for action who used to stay at the Spa for an entire meet and occasionally (in the 1980s) do a Saratoga flats/Green Mountain greyhounds Saturday day/night doubleheader. (This was after Green Mountain went to the dogs in the mid-70s.)

4) Pop musician Cyndi Lauper worked there as a groom at GM one summer and lived in a tent in the woods behind the track (years before she became somewhat famous in the early days of MTV).

[Shemp Howard]

http://www.horseracing-tracks.com/tracks/vt/imgGm/ticket.jpg

[ultracapper]

Somewhat famous? That little girls having fun diddy kind of had some legs.

[Thomas Roulston]

But think of all the ideas for Calder-style "Extreme Racing Days" that are possible with this track design - including 2 1/2-furlong grass races, and a 3-furlong Rocket Man-type Stakes with a 20-horse field!

I would also advocate a Calder-style surface - slow and safe and closer-favoring (potentiating the effects of the 1,320-foot stretch and long, sweeping turns).

And even the original Green Mountain track took a bit of a walk on the wild side - with a 1,106-foot-long stretch, longer than Belmont's (1,097 feet) despite the fact that Belmont's dirt track is almost twice as big (6 1/2 furlongs to Belmont's 1 1/2 miles).