Give me fan friendly Hawthorne any day with it’s new handicapping center blended in with the amenities of the Gold Cup room, the cognoscenti give it two big thumbs up. Arlington reminds me of the lyrics from that old Johnny Rivers song, "Secret Agent Man":

Beware of pretty faces that you find

A pretty face can hide an evil mind



AND THAT SAYS IT ALL

Saratoga by far (my parents live 20 miles from the Track)
Been to Mth, Med, Pha, Aqu , Bel.
Would love to visit OP someday

100+ year old tradition
 

Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ar. has it all. Crisp cool mountain air. A small town spa retreat, with great restaurants and night life. Friendly folks and great horse racing. Now that's the good life!

Top Ten Tracks I've been to.
 

1. Del Mar
2. Keeneland
3. Saratoga
4. Gulfstream
5. Arlington
6. Churchill Downs
7. Woodbine
8. Hollywood Park
9. Fort Erie
10. Beulah Park

The worst track has got to be Pimlico:ThmbDown: . Should be hit with a wrecking ball. You are forced to watch the race on TV monitors at some point as the Clubhouse blocks the view on the 1st turn of Distance races. A huge track with very little room to stand outside to watch it live. Been to Sportsman's and Detroit Race Course, RIP, Atlantic City semi-RIP.

cj's dad
 

[QUOTE

The worst track has got to be Pimlico:ThmbDown: . Should be hit with a wrecking ball. You are forced to watch the race on TV monitors at some point as the Clubhouse blocks the view on the 1st turn of Distance races. A huge track with very little room to stand outside to watch it live. Been to Sportsman's and Detroit Race Course, RIP, Atlantic City semi-RIP.[/QUOTE]

Next time you go to Pimlico, buy a seat to sit outside in the first tier and you will see everything. And also, who cares about the 1st turn anyway ? If something happens there, then you go inside and watch the replay !! And if you think Old Hilltop is the worst, then you haven't been to many !!

I've been to at least 20 tracks. Pimlico ranks dead last. I have seats on the finish line every Preakness Day. They are inside seats located in the Grandstand. The Clubhouse juts out so badly that the first turn is completely obliterated. i used to go to Cleveland Stadium as a kid and sit behind a big iron girder. You can really enjoy a ballgame looking at one of those things.
Not to brag, but i've been to to a VIP Room at Churchill on Breeder's Cup Day as well as on the finish line at Hollywood Park BC in 1997. Also on the finish line at Keeneland a few times. A HUGE difference!! Tell me a few tracks I missed that are worse than Old Milltop.

Gird Yourself
 

rr,

I have some grave news. That was no girder. That was Rocky Colavito. :D

Don't knock the Rock!;) I did see Tony Horton hit 3 HRs in a game. He popped out in his 4th AB and CRAWLED to the dugout.:eek: Saw Charlie Sheen run out to the mound to pitch for a scene in Major League. The producers scrapped the whole shooting to go do it at Milwaukee's old stadium. Now that's a real smackdown.

Don't you mean Willie Horton, the Gates Brown of his day, and no relation to the center of the whole Bush-pere and Dukakis brouhaha?

Nope, Willie Horton played for the Tigers, Tony was the next Generation Jimmy Piersall, having a Nervous breakdown in the early 70's. Nothing like a Sunday DH at the Stadium. 2 games for $8.00. Attendance about 8,000. Thistledown wishes they could 8,000 for a weekend nowadays.

1969 Cleveland Indians (Franchise Index: 1968 / 1970)
62-99, Finished 6th in AL Eastern Division
View League Standings and Leaders
Scored 573 runs, Allowed 717 runs. Pythagorean W-L: 64-97
Managed by Alvin Dark


Ballpark: Cleveland Stadium (ballparks.com)
Attendance: 619,970 (11th out of 12)
Park Factor: Batting - 103/Pitching - 104 (over 100 favors batters)

Horton Hears A Who
 

I knew about WH, I just figured he played in CMS when the Tigers came to town.

Should get back to the topic....Even tho I think Arlington is great, some of the live tellers are not. On more than one occasion, I've said " A dollar tri 1 with the 2-3-4-5" and have been corrected by a teller. "That would be a dollar part wheel, 1 with 2-3-4-5", was the response. There was one guy that told me next time to remember what I was told and call out the bet the right way! i just said "give me a voucher for $200, and hope you still have a job someday".

RR,

They do that shit everywhere.

Thistledown always did it, especially the Oldtimers. I think they just wanted to punch WIN tickets, so they'd piss off the customers that play exotic combinations. This way the patrons would go to the SAM's on their own. I knew of one teller that would press REPEAT on tickets she thought were being played by the "smart guys". She ended up begging for money to pay her drawer at the end of her shift. Eventually got fired.

Fairmount Park

Right across the river, they spent money on new simucast room, etc. college cooeds on weekends from SLU,SIU,SIUE. Theracing has gone downhill, casinos have crushed them, plus the chicago tracks and peeps giving a rats about the track. But it's always been $$$


been too:

riverdowns: liked the track, seriously a sleeper, but thought the simucast building was poorly placed sum 30+ yards from wire. And AC was out, and it was one hot muther!

Turfway: Favorite, loved handicapping the track, loved the people, and enjoyed the old lady. I'm a simpleton like that.

Bluegrassdowns(anyone know the name of it now adays?): wow, a dump, but a great place to just go and bet the horses, the peeps are pretty much your typical hardworking weekend gamblers, love the bartender, you get your beer and ask her for a $10 exacta 4-3. Not a place to bring a chick, or buddys who want to party, but a great, quiet place to gamble!

East Saint Louie Toodle-Oo
 

STL,
You don't mean Blue Bonnet, do you? And how about Ellis Park? I've heard it's something right out of Huckleberry Finn. Okay, I exaggerate.

its in paducah Kentucky

it used to be Bluegrass downs, then Became a harness track!



Funny thing is, 90% of the races there were handtimed, and you couldnt get a true pp of their races.


it would be like 24 1/5 1(4 lengths)
---- ----
---- ----
---- ---
final: handtimed buwahahaha! i was like ok, and what was it?

Fort Erie ( Saratoga of the north )

Woodbine ( giant of the north )

Woodbine is massive - 700 acres!

Two training tracks: dirt and turf. The grandstand turf course circles the main track - no crossing the dirt track here: 11/2 miles and an endless stretch run.

They're building a huge entertainment center, and plan to have a shuttle bus from the airport which is five minutes away - smart move!

I would love to visit CD, Sar, SA, etc - I sure plan to. :)

Woodbine is great but I wouldn't exactly call Fort Erie , the Saratoga of the north.


Z

zaf,

I was referring to the grounds - flowers and such.

I haven't been there in many years so that may have changed?

I was at Fort Erie once, 20 years ago, and thought the grounds were beautiful.

Momouth is a dump
 

the place is ancient and falling apart. The thought of the Breeders cup there is laughable. The parking lot is in shambles and outside of the park area the inner workings are old and outdated.
Give me the Meadowlands any day of the week Air comditioned restaurants bars tvs all over the place anything you want simulcast about 20 tracks, I went to the crappy Spa they simulcast 3 tracks they suck also

racetracks
 

I think for beauty it would be Delmar. But if you want to see some beautiful young women nothing compares to Oaklawn on the weekends.

Geno ;)

Still don't get the "beauty" bit about Del Mar. Garish, ticky-tick condos to the left, an unremarkable--and rather arid--typical SoCal desertscape to the right and beyond the backstretch. Granted, pleasant weather, and a nice beach to the rear, though of course you can't see the Pacific from anywhere on the track grounds (and even if you could ... cf. Robert Frost's poem, "Neither Out Far Nor In Deep").

Oaklawn, on the other hand, looks gorgeous--or at least it does from all the footage and photos I've seen of it. Likewise Woodbine, the favorite track of "Colonel Martingale" (aka "Audax Minor," nee George Ryall), who wrote "The Race Track" column for The New Yorker for more than fifty years. Finger Lakes also looks lovely.

My favorite place to spend an afternoon, however, is--don't laugh, now!--Bay Meadows. Not scenic, not especially well-appointed; but not a bad seat in the house, easy to get around in--and into and out of--and, unlike Del Mar or Santa Anita (IMO, a much prettier track than the one at which "the turf meets the surf"), never a problem getting a bet down.

Like just about everything Der Bingle ever had a hand in (Jack Cooper, former president of the Screen Actors Guild, said Crosby was "the coldest man I ever knew. Cold, cold man. I can still smell the whiskey on his breath"), Del Mar is hugely overrated.

Your old Binglebasher,

falconridge

Frostridge,

Where did you ever dig up that hoary rime?

Agree about Bowel Movement, I mean Bay Meadows. The plant is multi-tiered, very old-fashioned, and the wood chips in the indoor paddock get the ol' factory hummin.' Friday nights are great fun there.
Del Mar is all about the ambience, but for me it's ruined, at least on weekends and holidays, by the crush of humanity. Humanity is overrated. So is survival. So is winning at the track, I ... THINK. :confused:

Del Mar
 

Del Mar was absolutely the best before it became trendy and they rebuilt in in the early 90s. In the old days you could always get a good seat and big crowds were non-existant. It was exactly like a dusty mission.....I always expected to see a padre ringing the bell. It was the only track in SoCal (I guess it is technically in LoCal) to offer the DD before 1961. How about a song....I'm Goin' To Tanforan In My Mind....

Yes, some hotties in that place. In march it will be a sorority house. Last couple of races Longshots, the bar across the street, gets really busy. A lot of them go there.

Isn't it hard to concentrate on the races with poontang on your mind? Just a thought...

I do most of my capping before I get there. That needs to change after this past weekend though :D :D

I remember being at Oaklawn in the late 80s. There was an assistant trainer there who I got to know and he had a horse running in the last race of the day there. I asked him about his horse and he was very evasive.....he changed the subject. I remember thinking that the horse might be alive. Anyways, me and a friend went to the bar and started talking to two girls there. We're drinking and I'm starting to get a little buzzed. I look at up the tote and see the horses loading into the gate for the last race. I run to the windows to bet the assistant trainers horse......too late. I got shut out. Sure enough, the horse jumps out in front in one of those mile races w/the short stretch. They never catch him and he pays $45 to win. That was a good lesson how well alcohol and gambling (don't) mix.

I have been going to Oaklawn since 1966
 

The secret to Oaklawn's repeated large crowds since those days, has been the appeal to college kids. When they are young, they become fans while chasing the "babes" and cheap beer. They have just a small amount of money for wagering, after the first two priorities are met. However, they return year after year and poor money through the windows, as they get older. They become citizens with more disposable income and love horse racing. I have seen this become an annual rite of passage from one generation to the next. Just as going to the Kentucky derby or Saratoga or Del Mar. Oaklawn annually has the largest crowds in racing. I remeber when they drew crowds of 50-60 thousand on weekends and 75k on Arkansas Derby day.

Yeah, the babes, looking Foxy, have always been a big draw at the Spa City. :) :lol: :D ;)

V.,

At the Ca. fairs, I always had to make sure my horses were alive, too. ;) :D

Oaklawn really is a nice joint to spend a weekend, the places to stay within a 30 minute drive, a are some of the nicest places to chill out. Brady Mountain lodge is one of those spots, fishing, boating, and a pretty decent place to eat...on site. I just love that place. Just dont stay IN HOT SPRINGS....those hotels are freaken dumps....a great place to do capping in the morning before the 1:30 post.is Brady Mountain!
A SIDE NOTE......PEOPLE OF ALL RELIGIONS ARE ALLOWED.

I Used to live 30 miles from the track..never bet a horse in my life...stopped in on a rainy day..saw the women..the beer..the food...cashed a 80 dollar exacta on my first race..i was hooked...GREAT PLACE TO WATCH A RACE...people are so very nice...tellers are great..always helped me when i was beginning....(told me that i got the 1 AND the 1a horse for one price when i wanted the 1-1a exacta box) lol....am going for 3 days of racing this coming weekend and i cant contain the excitment..maybe can cash one of the HUGE payouts that have been going on this year.....i will always remember watching smarty win the derby....had 100 across the board...a HUGE bet for a college kid on a budget...when he won it was hard partying...oaklawn ran out of cash and had to issue cashiers checks...if the pool would have been at just oaklawn he woulda paid...2.10 for the win!! great times

Belmont is heaven, especially on a fine afternoon in May or June. I get weepy just thinking about it.

Saratoga is too crowded to be enjoyable. My husband calls it Coney Island with horses, except you can't even see the horses.

Really?

Someone just voted in an 8yr old poll?
:lol:
The silliness never ends

(I did not BUMP this thread by posting this - it was already bumped) :faint:

:1: Saratoga-"Feel like I am sitting in the clouds-Heaven I"
:1a: Monmouth Park-"When the summer wind comes rolling in from the shore-Heaven II"

Honorable Mention; My once a year visit to Saratoga Harness-believe it or not!.....Very Relaxing........... :D

2 just voted things change in 8 years............... :lol:

Favorite Racetrack to Spend the Day
 

I just voted for the first time. Had it close between Saratoga in August or the Big A in February. Went with the former; the aroma of weed coming from the cold, dark stairways of frigid Aqueduct was not enough to sway me.

I've not been to Saratoga, but it is on my bucket list. For me it is Keeneland in the fall. The spring meet, not so much. :ThmbUp: