Atlantic City Race Course....DONE
 

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Greenwood has been devastating to NJ Thoroughbred racing.
It all started when the company decided to run year round at the then Phila Park....That essentially crushed Garden State which I believe ended up in the hands of Greenwood. Now it's a mall.
So now they close AC which for the last few years their 6 day meets were drawing crowds of some 10,000 to 15,000 admissions on some days. Handle was decent. Around 700,000 all sources.....
I realize AC was kept open just for the right to hold simulcasting year round.
And save for caring of the turf course, it's not as though Greenwood was putting any money into the other parts of the facility.
So what's it cost them to keep it open for the short meet?

It looks like their play was to get their OTW (Favorites at Vineland) up, running and generating income, then pull the plug on Aycee. Of course having Aycee was the reason they were given an OTW license.

For years now, the NJ Racing Commission has been bending over for Greenwood and allowing them to operate their annual mini meet for less than the required minimum number of days, which in turn allowed them to offer simulcasting year round.

Their license to operate Vineland should be voided.

The Fat Man will turn a blind eye once Bob Green's campaign contributions are tallied up.

So, business as usual?

Sad day indeed....spent much of my 67 years there.... About 40 years through all the highs and lows


Still remember the great dr Fager battling out in United nations to win grass champion over advocater


Really sad

Sad day, saw many a race their, flats or harness , it didn't matter!!

If only

1) they could move that turf course just about anywhere

2) all those people who desperately wanted the smoking bans actually showed up after the bans were enacted

3) greenwood was never allowed to ruin the paramutuel racing in Central and South Jersey

4) the New Jersey Racing Commission gave a crap about the welfare of Garden State Park

Amen, NJ.....very well put.

This happened fast and out of nowhere (I think)

Place is so old with the oldest possible televisions at any racetrack I guess reality finally settled in that it was a lost cause, big crowds but nobody betting

Atlantic county is just falling apart at the seams as the casino closures are crippling the area, such a fall from grace

Meanwhile had the days requested off for the meet now that has gone to waste

Various social media sites have people crying that the place is closing but they did their part in not betting when it was open, gonna be hard to bring that place down with the asbestos in that building

Dang, was on my radar to visit this year and add to my collection.

I stopped in there last weekend after going to Borgata. Place really was a dump, hardly any working TVs as WW wrote, best thing you could say about it was that nobody would bother you. They weren't taking a whole host of tracks-GP,TB,SA,GG...really just went there to get the DRF. Atlantic County is in dire shape with all the casino closings.
It was a lot of fun that Spring Meet but still they could have fixed it up a little more. I think NJ could use a two month AC meet in the Spring, really now it is all Monmouth. As many write I guess it was the owner, they did not allow njbets/TVG account wagering which is a slap in the face to their customers.

I have tons of memories -- professional and personal, all good -- of Atlantic City Race Course. RIP.

But, I am truthfully not surprised Parx closed it because those people are a cancer to the sport and have been since they've come here from England in the 1980s.

Has anyone been to Parx recently? After many, many years as a bonafide dump, it's now simply a first-class shithole, thanks to Greenwood.

Place is a certified dump but the 6 day meet was perfect- got both horses and people "legged up" for Monmouth. For the past few years AC served as the kickoff to my personal live racing season. Going there and seeing/smelling horses, smell cigar and cigarette smoke and the dynamic characters that attended that meet was the best waist-up sensory pleasure a Northeast horseplayer emerging from winter could ask for.

Whiff good comment on the oldest TVs on the planet. The oldest TV title now belongs to the ones in Monmouth Park's Picnic Area.

Big M should pick up the April turf meet. Maybe run on Wed-Thu (Parx dark) for 3 weeks 4/22-23, 29-30 and 5/6-7. If they wanted to get ballsy maybe they run day-night DH on Oaks/Derby day too!

Just got off the phone with a good friend in his early 60s that was friends with my father as I was growing up and lives in atlantic county and is 1 of usually 7 people betting horses was in tears when we were just talking about the place shutting down

I remember waking up at like 2am the other night checking this forum and seeing this thread I couldn't believe it, track seemed to me immune to the wrecking ball

So sad this place is closing as I thought the place would be getting stronger with all ac race books closing exept borgata

Greenwood is a cancer to this sport **** them

It's too much of a dump Whizz. These days you really don't even need race books- just a nice bar, a smart phone, an account and TVG/HRTV is all you need- never mind the shithole that was ACRC. I guess the people that like to physically attend can't support the costs. Hell same thing happened to NYCOTB really- the die hards that used the physical plants as a social club couldn't support them.