Closed Horse Tracks

[fouroneone]

Does anyone know of any web sites dealing with closed courses, tracks, and their histories?

I grew up near Detroit Race Course and would love a trip down memory lane, however i would love info or pics on ANY closed tracks in the states or canada.

[TOOZ]

http://www.ak-sar-ben.com/years.html

[Zman179]

Memorial website for Roosevelt Raceway:

www.angelfire.com/ny2/sgtjeff/rr.html

I've always said that when it comes between Yonkers & Roosevelt, they tore down the wrong track.

[OTM Al]

Some NYC racing history for you

http://naid.sppsr.ucla.edu/coneyisland/articles/horseracing.htm

http://www.arrts-arrchives.com/mbbr9.html

This one as a short piece of film from 1897 by Thomas Edison at the Sheepshead Bay Track
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/papr:@field(NUMBER+@band(edmp+0058))

It looks like this is not recognizing the whole url for the site with the Edison film, so cut and paste into your browser

Its interesting that NY had two legs of the Triple Crown at one time, though it was not yet aclaimed as such, when the Preakness was run on the Gravesend Track. I live in Sheepshead Bay, so the history of these tracks is a fun thing for me to look into

[fouroneone]

Thanks for all the great sites guys,

i remember the demolition of Roosevelt, however i had just moved to the area in 97, so i never realized its importance.

I also never knew yonkers used to hold thouroughbred meets.

I found this site in my searches on Canadian Race Tracks

http://mi-harness.net/trks/goneCAN.html

[fmhealth]

ZMAN, A very big THANK YOU goes out to you. The link to the RR website was nothing short of magnificent.

Spending my youth between Aqu, Bel & RR. This site was riveting in its ability to bring back so many fond & vivid memories. Perhaps it's the sweet scent of our youthful days. But, I can't help but believe that life was so much better back then. Simple, polite, respect for authority, respect for one another. Songs that you could actually understand the words to. Basic dignity. It's a shame the legacy that we're leaving for our children.

Thanks again !!!

[Zman179]

You're welcome FM.

I still remember my last ever visit to Roosevelt for live racing. It was on a Tuesday afternoon in 1987 (when they used to run day-night doubleheaders) and I got my clock cleaned. Left after about 6 races and moved to Los Angeles four days later (I moved back to NY in 1991.) Roosevelt closed in 1988. I found out by reading the Racing Form where there was a caption on the track's demise.

I happened to be in the area about 6 months before it's demolition in 2001. It was just a partially burned out shell of a grandstand and that's all that was left. The area where the racing surface and the tote board used to be was just a gravel lot. The only reason the track stood for so long was due to the high cost of asbestos removal. It couldn't be torn down until the asbestos was completely removed.

There was still one sign that up until recently had still stood, but I hear that it's since been taken down. Everything else is long gone. Now, the only thing that is left that pays homage to the old track is the movie theater where the stable area used to be called the "Loews Cineplex Roosevelt Raceway".

I have no idea if the theater has old photos of the track up on the walls since it's named after the place, but it would be interesting to find out.

[Zman179]

And the one thing that I miss about Roosevelt? The old WPS probables tote board with the odds in red, the best ever made. I never did understand why the board was numbered 10-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9.

Picture of the tote board (slightly fuzzy) (http://i11.ebayimg.com/01/i/02/ef/e5/aa_1_b.JPG)

[Zaf]

Originally posted by Zman179
And the one thing that I miss about Roosevelt? The old WPS probables tote board with the odds in red, the best ever made. I never did understand why the board was numbered 10-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9.

Picture of the tote board (slightly fuzzy) (http://i11.ebayimg.com/01/i/02/ef/e5/aa_1_b.JPG)

Cool photo Zman. That brings back old memories.

I too spent my youth bouncing between AQU - BEL - RR - YON.


ZAFONIC

[Blackgold]

I miss Garden State.

Ditto for Jefferson Downs.

And Hilaleah.

And yea, I know Atlantic City runs couple weeks a year, but that's not enough.

[wilderness]

Hey fouroneone,
The Canadian web page of which you provided the link to is one page of one of my websites. Both of which are very extensive efforts about Standardbreds and harness racing.

The page you provided is a sub-page of the following page:
http://mi-harness.net/trks/index.html

In addition to current harness tracks the section provided links to "Days Gone" pages for both US and Canadian tracks. It also provides some links to early tracks.
In the late 1800's and early 1900's when most every home had a horse and buggy, in order to keep the racing off the streets as civilization progressesd, most every town had a "trotting park or driving park."
Some of these early parks/tracks turned in to racetracks later.

There are some excellent resources across the internet for both older non-existing tracks and early pictures of exiting tracks.
The American Memory section of the Library of Congress has some excellent quality images (especially Roosevelt.)
That site can be a nightmare to navigate and even worse to attempt to provide direct links to individual pages. All due to the very extensive quanity of pages and images that the Library of Congress has available.
Over 5-million items! Add to that the smaller images and navigation images and the number is easily doubled.
The site had a very large section for Chicago racetracks as well.
They use temporary links to generate pages and that is why the direct links are not useable.

Best place to start is at the main page:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
In the search box type in racetracks or horses or even the name of a specific track.

BTW your orginal inquiry was related to DRC and here's a link for some images there: My favortite track.
http://www.detroityes.com/today/06drc_full.htm

I have a special page page regarding Phoenix Trotting Park and an Sportsman's Park in Phoenix which was open for a short period prior to Sportman's Park in Chicago.

(edit) In poking around this forum, I've realized that the Library of Congress has changed their link procedure since my last vist. The links are now useable.
Somebody in another thread, provided this link:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/pan:@field(SUBJ+@od1(Horse+racing+))

There are so many more across the internet. One just needs to utilize every trick in the bag to draw them out.
There are a good half-dozen websites on Roosevelt and NONE provide any real depth of the once rich history of Roosevelt. And. . .I do not mean that in a bad reflection against the websites. It's just that Roosevelt was such a center of racing and so much is available that is not being utilized.

All from a declining lack of interest in horse racing by the general public.

[wilderness]

Attached is an aerial photo advertisement announcing the 1955 Approaching season of DRC's Wolverine Raceway (originally published in April 13th, 1955 Harness Horse magazine.) Their 6th year approaching, having opened for harness racing in 1950.

The Mrs. Van Leennep referred to in the ad is
Frances Dodge-Johnson-Van Lennep. Her father was John F. Dodge of automobile fame.
Frances had a treasured life filled with horses, horsemen and racing. It is said that she was just as comfortable and accepted in a formal eveneing gown as she was speaking with a stable hand or racing fan.
There is some amazing Dodge Family history on the MeadowBrook site which was Matilda Dodge's (Frances' mother) home later in life.
http://www.meadowbrookhall.org/dodgewilson.htm

Please note: the file size of the image that I intended to attach exceeded the forum limit of 30kb. Should anybody desire to see the image?
Please email me and I'll send it.

[fouroneone]

@wilderness - thanks for the proper link to your site.

All the info is very interesting and informative.


Track history (closed or not) is becoming my new hobby.

Keep the sites coming!

[wilderness]

fouroneone,
Seesh! I had a lengthy reply close to compeltion and went to get a supporting URL and closed this active browser by mistake.

If you grew up in the Detroit area than there are some very old tracks of which you may not be aware?

From 1853-92 there was a track named Hamtramck, which was located at what is today, Van Dyke and E. Jefferson.
I do have a few items on a web page about that track.
http://www.mi-harness.com/Mich/1853.html

In 1892, a new track opened named Grosse Pointe. The track was funded and built by the gransdon of Jos. Campau. This tracks success was very short lived as autombiles began. In 1902, Henry Ford entered and drove in his only car race. Winning the three car race (one car broke down) Henry was able to secure financial backing for FoMoCo.
http://www.mi-harness.com/Mich/grsptetrk.html


There was also a track located in Highland Park. HP made multiple attepmts to gain dates on harness racings Grand Circuit
( http://mi-harness.com/publct/rgnggrnd.html ) however HP could not compete with the then success of Kalamazoo, MI and the heavy support that racing community had. Kalamazoo was the under-bidder for the original Hambletonian in 1926.
Kalamazoo did host the Merchant and Maunfacurer's races carried over from Hamtramck and Grosse Pointe.
I have very little information on this track. That community is in serious decline and has financial problems. The Library is closed and I've not had any success reaching a historical society.

The OLD Fairgrounds was located at Six Mile Rd and Woodward. I was in that are recently and it's all homes. Seabiscuit raced there among famous other horses of both T-Breds and S-Breds breeds.

The Michigan State Fairgrounds located at Woodward and Eight Mile roads hosted T-breds through the 1949 season. Never harness racing (i.e. my lack of interest.)

In 1949 DRC opened.

I don't recall when Hazel Park opened?
HP has a history section on their website.
Hazel Park raceway was built on what was a landfill in the late 30's and early 40's and as a result the land was literally worthless when the track came along. Initially the facility was supposed to be a car track, however it was determined too small for that use. In any event the person who secured the property (was also the early owner of the car track in Mount Clemens,) droped the ball as financial disaster hit. Along came some folks and built a horse track.

Northville Downs opened in 1944.

Jackson Raceway (although not at it's current site) goes back to the 1870's. Opned at their existing location in 1948.
http://www.mi-harness.com/trks/jackhist.html

East Saginaw has some rich Standardbred history back to the 1870's or earlier.
In fact one of my favorite stories is when Goldsmith Maid raced there (BTW Goldsmith Maid set her World Record at Kalamazoo of 2:19 and change.)
http://www.mi-harness.com/Mich/1874.htm

This page has many links of Michigan Standadbred history:
http://www.mi-harness.com/Mich/History.html

There are a few T-Bred tracks across the US which had their early beginnings as S-Bred tracks. One of those (that I currently don't recall) was quite unimagineable to me when I read it.

[wilderness]

"Kalamazoo did host the Merchant and Maunfacurer's races carried over from Hamtramck and Grosse Pointe. "

This line should actually read:

Highland Park did host the Merchant and Maunfacurer's races carried over from Hamtramck and Grosse Pointe.

[ranchwest]

Originally posted by Blackgold
I miss Garden State.

Ditto for Jefferson Downs.

And Hilaleah.

And yea, I know Atlantic City runs couple weeks a year, but that's not enough.

Jefferson Downs, man. I used to love watching that high angle view of that little bull ring track. They'd run those marathon races and I could never figure out how many laps they were going or when they were on the last lap. Looked like a cockroach race on the monitor.

I'd like to see pictures of Arlington Downs and Trinity Meadows.

[Equineer]

A near-topic aside...

For pictorial and narrative racing nostalgia, look for Racing Days, by Hornstein and Boyd, Viking Penguin Inc, NY, 1987.

Would make a great holiday coffee-table book gift if you can find a good used copy.

I don't know how long it remained in print.

Among many good photos/topics, the 1978 Backstretch Photo from Great Barrington Fair and the Jockey's Excuse Photo (KEE, 1985) are priceless.