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jognlope
11-04-2007, 04:28 PM
Like this 3-county fair place, is it still open?? Featured here Z. chippys last race:

http://www.equidaily.com/bestbet/extras/misc/zippy.html

Nacumi
11-04-2007, 05:03 PM
Timonium's is the smallest track I've ever seen up close. 5F dirt oval and very steeply banked. Downright scary, if you ask me.

rcknhrse
11-04-2007, 05:09 PM
the now defunct shenandoah downs which was a sister track to charlestown they would alternate during the year

was a 3 furlong track
it might still be there as a training track

banacek
11-04-2007, 05:17 PM
Like this 3-county fair place, is it still open?? Featured here Z. chippys last race:

http://www.equidaily.com/bestbet/extras/misc/zippy.html

Geez, that place looks like Saratoga compared to Moose Jaw. Moose Jaw had a chalk board odds board, and paper tickets (not computerized). You bought daily double tickets on the first race and then traded in the winners for your choices for the 2nd race. But you could drive your car up to the rail.

JimG
11-04-2007, 05:26 PM
Shenandoah Downs for sure. 3.5 furlongs was the standard sprint distance. Torn down a few years ago. I do not even think they are using the track portion any more for training, but somebody locally would know for sure.

Jim

Turntime
11-04-2007, 05:58 PM
Adams County Fairgrounds in Colorado ran a meet for a few years back in the late 80's (in between the closing of Centennial and the opening of Arapahoe Park). It was either a 1/2 or 5/8 mile oval with a mixture of Thoroughbred & Quarter Horse racing and the occasional Arabian or Draft Horse(!) race.

jognlope
11-04-2007, 06:56 PM
drive up to the rail...funny.

Zaf
11-04-2007, 07:43 PM
Shenandoah Downs for sure. 3.5 furlongs was the standard sprint distance.
Jim

I'm afraid to ask, What was the standard route distance & how many turns ?

Z

Zman179
11-04-2007, 08:29 PM
Northampton (3 County Fair) last meet was in 2005.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/columns/story?columnist=finley_bill&id=2267707

The Shenandoah Downs grandstand was torn down earlier this year and the property was raised for housing.

Tightest track in the game should be Ferndale. It's a ½ mile track with hairpin turns. There are other ½ milers out there, but Ferndale is readily available on the internet for race replays.

Sailwolf
11-04-2007, 08:32 PM
Northampton (3 County Fair) closed in 2006.

The Shenandoah Downs grandstand was torn down earlier this year and the property was raised for housing.

Tightest track in the game should be Ferndale. It's a ½ mile track with hairpin turns. There are other ½ milers out there, but Ferndale is readily available on the internet for race replays.

There are examples of the longest race they have in which the jockeys sometimes forget how many turns (circles) they have do before the finish line.:faint:

jognlope
11-04-2007, 08:42 PM
Nice writing. Figueroa says quote, Paul Revere never won 5 races in 8 days. Sounds like an era that brought a lot of fun times.

OTM Al
11-04-2007, 08:51 PM
Union County Maine. Can only be 1/2 mile tops and just big enough for 6 trotters only to run. If the pools would have been more than about $200 I would have really cleaned up......

JimG
11-04-2007, 09:14 PM
I'm afraid to ask, What was the standard route distance & how many turns ?

Z

I recall 5.5 furlongs around 2 turns Everything else was 3 turns or more. It's been so long ago (and I was just a kid when my parents went there), I cannot recall the actual route distances.

Jim

RaceBookJoe
11-04-2007, 09:34 PM
The 2 smallest I ever went to were The Great Barrington Fair in MA and possibly even smaller but not sure it counts was when they ran harness racing at the Altamont Fair in NY. What a crapfest that was. The track at Barrington had a tunnel that went under and I remember it begin a very short walk, you could probably spit from one side to the other.

46zilzal
11-05-2007, 12:39 AM
Columbus Texas: shaped like an inverted "J," with a straightaway and a turn ONLY they ran 22 Q-horse races there the day I attended with one having a purse of 100K.

Ferndale is tiny but the same size at old Pomona.

Hosshead
11-05-2007, 09:02 AM
I'm afraid to ask, What was the standard route distance & how many turns ?

ZTrack was so small that:- The last lap in route races was the Gun Lap !

jognlope
11-05-2007, 09:06 AM
That must have brought out the hopefuls...

bane
11-05-2007, 03:01 PM
... 1/4m tracks in bushwack East Texas and LA.

SMOO
11-05-2007, 03:23 PM
The smaller the tracks the smaller the nearby hotel rooms. One was so small that when I put the key in the door I broke a window.

cj
11-05-2007, 04:02 PM
This one is pretty small:

http://www.searchamateur.com/pictures/horse-racing-track-set-2.jpg
Here is a better one for you early Christmas shoppers!

http://www.searchamateur.com/product/Horse-Racing-Set.htm (http://www.searchamateur.com/product/Horse-Racing-Set.htm)

Boats
11-05-2007, 04:27 PM
I would guess the smallest track that presently has thoroughbred racing is Ferndale, CA, 1/2 mile. Before simulcasting took over, a friend and I would head up to nearby camp ground for a week, with a pickup full of beer. It was a great time. After the races we would hang out at the Palace Bar, the only bar in town, and bullshit with the jockeys. It was something we looked forward to year after year. The biggest race of the meet was and still is 1-5/8 mile stakes.

Zman179
11-05-2007, 07:04 PM
The 2 smallest I ever went to were The Great Barrington Fair in MA and possibly even smaller but not sure it counts was when they ran harness racing at the Altamont Fair in NY. What a crapfest that was. The track at Barrington had a tunnel that went under and I remember it begin a very short walk, you could probably spit from one side to the other.

Funny part about Great Barrington was that it was a half mile track that wasn't a perfect oval. There were slight straightaways on the turns!

chickenhead
11-05-2007, 08:15 PM
highly possible next year may be the last for FER...

Fan Since The 50's
07-31-2016, 04:51 PM
Standard routes were 1 Mile, 1 Mile and 70 yards, and 1 & 1/16th miles all with 3 turns.

Psychotic Parakeet
07-31-2016, 05:17 PM
Grants Pass Downs

bobphilo
07-31-2016, 05:30 PM
Does anyone else find it strange that a huge country like the U.S. has so many tiny tracks, where the tight turns make races resemble the roller derby, and the largest track is Belmont at 1 1/2 miles is just average size compared to European tracks where land is much scarcer? Do I see greed at the expense of the sport.

dilanesp
07-31-2016, 06:00 PM
drive up to the rail...funny.

Mrs. Markey did that at the 1978 Blue Grass.

Run Nicholas Run
07-31-2016, 06:13 PM
the white pine county fair in ely, nv is pretty low level.
You know its bad when a jockey like don lee french can
come here for the two day meet and dominate like he is
pincay or cordero.

johnhannibalsmith
07-31-2016, 06:20 PM
the white pine county fair in ely, nv is pretty low level.
You know its bad when a jockey like don lee french can
come here for the two day meet and dominate like he is
pincay or cordero.

The Frenchman puts Pincay to shame!

:lol:

Who else is riding there these days? Jesse Chance and J. C. Estrada?

ronsmac
07-31-2016, 06:24 PM
I'm afraid to ask, What was the standard route distance & how many turns ?

ZI'm 6 years late , but Shenandoah was a 5f track that had a chute for two turn 6f races and three turn 1 1/16th races. They did run 5 1/2f two turn races and 1m three turn races also. I'm looking at the program from the 1968 Tri State Futurity online. There are 13 horses entered. I wonder if they all ran? 13 horses on that little track had to be a sight to see.

Track Collector
07-31-2016, 06:36 PM
Hey guys, now you are talking my language. I LOVE these places!!!

The smallest parimutuel thoroughbred tracks that I am aware of are 1/2-mile, and there are a number of them. Most are located in states like WA, OR, CA (has one, called Ferndale), ID, MT, AZ.

Timonium is the only track like these (albeit 5/8-mile in size) that is East of the Mississippi, and Brockton MA which is still 1/2-mile is working hard trying to get a meet together in 2016.

Not sure which current track has the tightest turns, but Northampton (which someone correctly indicated that last ran in 2005) certainly looked like it could have made that claim. Their "about" 5 furlong races looked dangerous as jockeys aggressively attacked the first (clubhouse) turn. Boy do I miss Northampton.....it is/was my all-time favorite with the racing and associated fair. :(

Would sure love to introduce someone to one of these places! :ThmbUp:

ronsmac
07-31-2016, 06:50 PM
I'm 6 years late , but Shenandoah was a 5f track that had a chute for two turn 6f races and three turn 1 1/16th races. They did run 5 1/2f two turn races and 1m three turn races also. I'm looking at the program from the 1968 Tri State Futurity online. There are 13 horses entered. I wonder if they all ran? 13 horses on that little track had to be a sight to see.
Holly crap. 9 years late. Damn, this is an old thread.

dilanesp
07-31-2016, 07:53 PM
By the way, I've been to the races at both Grants Pass and Ferndale, and attended Pomona as a kid when it was a 4 furlong track.

I recommend the bullrings for any racing fan. Not necessarily for handicapping-- the races are wild and the pools are small. But for fun. You really connect with the sport watching races on a bullring. The horses come around a lot, they are right up in front of you, and you can easily see all the action and the trouble. And the fans are usually excited to see a horse race up close rather than buried in the grandstand watching television.

Saratoga_Mike
07-31-2016, 08:03 PM
The 2 smallest I ever went to were The Great Barrington Fair in MA and possibly even smaller but not sure it counts was when they ran harness racing at the Altamont Fair in NY. What a crapfest that was. The track at Barrington had a tunnel that went under and I remember it begin a very short walk, you could probably spit from one side to the other.

Did Altamont hold harness or tbred races? When did they stop racing?

clocker7
07-31-2016, 08:24 PM
The halfmilers are a throwback to the county fair days of having Sbreds and Tbreds on the same track. With trotter classes being dependent upon mile times, there was an agreed standardization nationwide based upon only two acceptable geometries.

5f tracks and other hybrids were a later development for downscale establishments.

MonmouthParkJoe
07-31-2016, 09:00 PM
the white pine county fair in ely, nv is pretty low level.
You know its bad when a jockey like don lee french can
come here for the two day meet and dominate like he is
pincay or cordero.

That really puts it in perspective since he had a hard time at Rillito this past meet.

Run Nicholas Run
07-31-2016, 11:58 PM
The Frenchman puts Pincay to shame!

:lol:

Who else is riding there these days? Jesse Chance and J. C. Estrada?

JC , the coke addict was tossed out of the big A in the early 80's
when he was riding for h a wendal in some good ny breds, one ran in the ky oaks, AROUNDBACK was the filly.

havent seen jesse chance in a while but cody house is still around
and justin vanderwood- now thats guy sucks more than joe durigon.

Run Nicholas Run
08-01-2016, 12:12 AM
That really puts it in perspective since he had a hard time at Rillito this past meet.


even when steve karr was still riding he would go from arizona up to ely and do good and he was even worse than donnie. the boise riders that would show up at ely are really bad.

johnhannibalsmith
08-01-2016, 12:17 AM
J...now thats guy sucks more than joe durigon.

How can a guy named Run Nicholas Run talk bad about Jockey Joe?

:lol:

v j stauffer
08-01-2016, 03:32 AM
Prineville Oregon

EMD4ME
08-01-2016, 05:31 AM
Never understood why some of these small fairs don't have video access to their races. Not looking for HD grade A camera work, just a phone cam shot would work! :)

pele polo
08-01-2016, 06:01 AM
http://www.horseracing-tracks.com/tracks/wv/layoutShd.html

Tho is a cool site that lost a lot of tracks.

I think there was some confusion about Shenandoah since the training track is now 3 furlongs but that wasn't actually the old track.

Track Collector
08-01-2016, 11:40 AM
Prineville Oregon

My current favorite track! :jump:

They are an annual visit, despite having to fly across the county.

bello
08-01-2016, 12:00 PM
Union Fair...harness racing Union Maine.

No room for the 3 parimutual windows so they built a deck on top of an adjoining river. A few year ago they were required to build a fence befor being re-licenced as a horse broke stride and ran right into the water.

The greatest for those who want a nostalgic racing experience and get their heads out of the computer.

Redbullsnation
08-01-2016, 02:25 PM
Ferndale??

Track Collector
08-01-2016, 03:01 PM
Union Fair...harness racing Union Maine.

No room for the 3 parimutual windows so they built a deck on top of an adjoining river. A few year ago they were required to build a fence befor being re-licenced as a horse broke stride and ran right into the water.

The greatest for those who want a nostalgic racing experience and get their heads out of the computer.

I've just recently started adding Parimutuel harness tracks to my visit list, so it will not be too long before I venture into Maine to add some of these tracks. Union sounds like it could be a blast.

Last year I visited 2 small fair harness racing tracks in Ohio. (They have something like 35-40 of them). The one (Lisbon I think it was) had far turns which had a width wide enough for about 2 horses! :eek: Parimutuel handle for that track for ALL 10 races was $802!!! Purses for the horses on the harness fair circuit are subsidized, typically around $4,500 per race, so it is understandable why horses would at least run at these fairs.

I was very surprised, but RTN (Racetrack Television Network) actually showed races last year from one of the non-commercial harness tracks. I think it was Topsham or Skowhegan.

Pensacola Pete
08-01-2016, 04:04 PM
One of the shortest tracks that ran extended meetings was Park Jefferson. It was about a foot short of half a mile with a stretch of 502 feet. The turns weren't banked. The rail was about a foot-high. Purses were generally in the hundreds of dollars, and total daily handle was around $40,000. They were one of the first tracks to offer a pick-six, called the "4 through 9," in the late 1950s. There was room --- barely --- to load 8 horses for a race. There were two chutes: the backstretch allowed the running of 4 furlong races, and the home chute accommodated both 6 furlong races and up to 440 yard Quarter horse races.

From those humble surroundings began the careers of D. Wayne Lukas and Bill Mott. Jack Van Berg also stabled a few horses there. On the rare instances that Mr. Van Berg happened to show up on a Sunday afternoon, you could be sure that the horses he had entered would be out there gunning. The barns in the backstretch were so rundown that the connections of Lukas built a barn for his use.

The track ceased operations in 1982 and was converted to a NASCAR dirt track.

bello
08-01-2016, 05:33 PM
I've just recently started adding Parimutuel harness tracks to my visit list, so it will not be too long before I venture into Maine to add some of these tracks. Union sounds like it could be a blast.

Last year I visited 2 small fair harness racing tracks in Ohio. (They have something like 35-40 of them). The one (Lisbon I think it was) had far turns which had a width wide enough for about 2 horses! :eek: Parimutuel handle for that track for ALL 10 races was $802!!! Purses for the horses on the harness fair circuit are subsidized, typically around $4,500 per race, so it is understandable why horses would at least run at these fairs.

I was very surprised, but RTN (Racetrack Television Network) actually showed races last year from one of the non-commercial harness tracks. I think it was Topsham or Skowhegan.

Don't miss Fryeburg Fair....In the White Mountains on the New Hampshire/Maine border. Short meet right in the heart of the foliage season.

Track is smack dab in the middle of the midway.

DSB
08-04-2016, 03:24 PM
In 1975, I left Commodore Downs with my one horse stable to race the Mass. fair circuit.

Made Marshfield, Northampton, and Great Barrington.

They were all half mile ovals.

Marshfield had a 5f chute with a tree in the middle. They set up the gate just in front of the tree.

At Northampton, a horse bore out one day and when they hit the first turn, he carried another horse with him right through the wooden outside rail. They were both killed instantly.

A front end loader came and removed them from the track and racing went on as scheduled.

deathandgravity
08-04-2016, 08:22 PM
The old Prescott Downs... use to drive up from Phoenix to get away from the heat for the day. Think it was 5f?

Always thought the place was on the unsafe side... quit going after that incident in 2000.

BMustang
08-05-2016, 10:35 AM
I used to frequent Hamilton (Ohio) back in the sixties when they raced thoroughbreds.
Half mile at best

appistappis
08-07-2016, 01:13 AM
picov downs before the rebuild into ajax downs.....it was a small j shape for quarters.

green80
08-07-2016, 09:05 AM
One of the shortest tracks that ran extended meetings was Park Jefferson. It was about a foot short of half a mile with a stretch of 502 feet. The turns weren't banked. The rail was about a foot-high. Purses were generally in the hundreds of dollars, and total daily handle was around $40,000. They were one of the first tracks to offer a pick-six, called the "4 through 9," in the late 1950s. There was room --- barely --- to load 8 horses for a race. There were two chutes: the backstretch allowed the running of 4 furlong races, and the home chute accommodated both 6 furlong races and up to 440 yard Quarter horse races.

From those humble surroundings began the careers of D. Wayne Lukas and Bill Mott. Jack Van Berg also stabled a few horses there. On the rare instances that Mr. Van Berg happened to show up on a Sunday afternoon, you could be sure that the horses he had entered would be out there gunning. The barns in the backstretch were so rundown that the connections of Lukas built a barn for his use.

The track ceased operations in 1982 and was converted to a NASCAR dirt track.

Are you talking about the Jefferson Downs that was just outside of New Orleans?