female bridge jumper crushed back in the day
 

_______________


fun old story from DRF - she got back $2.20 not $2.10 way back then

she bet huge sums - tipped the mutuel tellers with fruitcakes when when she won________(~:/

Charlestown, Mountaineer, and Prairie Meadows still pay minimum $2.20 but they refuse big bets





https://www.drf.com/news/lady-red-st...bridge-jumpers




.

Interesting Suff...thanks for posting.

If anyone cares to read the book mentioned at the end, by this writer---it's available on Amazon. I'll post a review after reading.

I ordered it used - for $5.75

https://i.postimg.cc/G3G7cCzM/BOOK.png

T.D. Thornton currently writes for the Thoroughbred Daily News (and possibly in other places). Here's his author page there with links to recent articles:

https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.co.../t-d-thornton/

A very good read.

Lady in red
 

10,000 $ show bets in 1960 at wonderland dog track on dogs like canadain pacific,bud jack, price list etc.:headbanger:

Great read thanks for posting.

I mentioned I would do a podcast. Not because I want attention really.
But, because I was there and have my own version of things.

I spent my chunks of my life running up and down winter hill to bunker hill. People have written books and made movies about it.

no joke.

I'm older, sober, quiet now. I know a lot though. Not because I read it in the paper , or someone told me about it, or because I saw it briefly. I was there 3 decades. no joke.

suff
 

I have been here on PA 2 decades btw. June 2002 I joined this place as SUFF. I had 30 years under my belt by then.

Few people alive or free know what I know.

that's for dam sure!

i used to go to Wonderland every night before Charlie Sarkis bough the place.

he bought the place because his father was barred.

when i went, i owned stock in Revere Racing corporation who was the holding company for Wonderland.

if you owned shares, you never had to pay admission and the programs were free.

Prairie Meadows is no longer $2.20 minimum.

Interesting side note, when Prairie went to 2.10 they also switched to nickel breakage on all bets, so a win could pay 2.70 instead of 2.60. That only lasted one season because, of course, why give the bettors anything extra? We'll keep the breakage and no minus pools for you!

People tend to focus on show betting, but just a handful of years ago there were still profitable opportunities in the place pool. They more or less evaporated when the industry switched the place and show price calculations to Net Pool Pricing. That effectively lowered the price to place on short priced horses by about 10 cents.

Steve Crist of DRF played greyhounds 2 years professionally at Wonderland Park before he ever stepped foot in Suffolk Downs. True fact.

Wonderland Derby purse was $280,000 in 1980's The Grady Sprint purse $125,000.

You could walk from Suffolk downs to Wonderland park in 10 minutes.
I have more wonderland stories than I have Suffolk stories.

Sarkis owned restaurants, Joe's American Bar and Grill, Abe & Louies. My father had the pest control contracts for all the Boston locations.

Wonderland was world class. Shippers every week from Denver, Phoenix, Miami, Southland Park. Flagler park, derby lane, Tampa.

Family friends, and kids from highschool worked there.

You could bring a date, single women went there, big parties and on track handles near a million.


Post Malone & Mark Whalberg did a Wonderland Netflix movie in 2020.


Criminal activity was pretty common in Revere.. in 1990 Sarkis and Wonderlands GM, along with 40 others were indicted for running illegal gaming and loan sharking.

I spent a hefty chunk of my college life split between Wonderland and Suffolk in the late 80s and early 90s....I was a small time degenerate...but a degenerate nonetheless...:lol:

The blue line trip to Revere and the walk across the Wonderland parking lot is still firmly etched in my brain.