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Old 06-23-2015, 11:19 PM   #1
levinmpa
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The Good Ole Days

The Good ole days

I know time moves forward and everything evolves and changes, but I really miss the game I fell in love with as a teenager and into my early 20's. This was early 80's into 90's. Some of the things I miss the most about the game at that time:

Large Fields. I remember when Belmont would have 150 or more horses entered on a 10 race card almost every day, even though some were obviously "also eligibles"

6 Day Race weeks year round in New York, 5 Day Race Weeks year round in California

New Jersey in the Summer had Monmouth Park running 5 afternoon days and Atlantic City ran in the evenings.

Northern California Fair meets had the same rotation every summer. Stockton, Pleasanton, Vallejo(Solano), Santa Rosa, Bay Meadows Fair, Sacramento. Each fair ran for 13 consecutive days and 13 races per card.

Hialeah Park ran the prime winter dates of January - March

Southern California had Shoemaker, Pincay Jr, McCarron, Delahoussaye, Hawley, Stevens, Valenzuela, Toro

New York had Cordero, Vasquez, Velasquez, Maple, Migliore, Smith, Bailey, Krone, Antley, Davis, Romero, Peret

Tom Durkin, Marshal Cassidy, Phil Georgeff, Ross Morton, Todd Creed, Dave Johnson

The full size Eastern Edition of the DRF was the size of a regular newspaper, not a tabloid

Affirmed and Alydar, Precisionist and Greinton, Sunday Silence and Easy Goer.

Longacres, Bay Meadows, Hollywood Park, Garden State Park, Atlantic City

Yes, things have changed, some for the better, some not. We have speed figures, ADW's, and a wealth of information available to us on our computers and smartphones whenever we want to access it. We also have 4 day or less race weeks with 8 race cards, short fields, few rivalries, "super" trainers, high takeouts, and we're now a "fringe" sport. I do miss the good ole days.
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Old 06-23-2015, 11:21 PM   #2
EMD4ME
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I am WITH YOU 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000%

I long for the days where my dad drove me to Monmouth for 10 races and we jetted out to make the 2nd or sometimes first LIVE at Atlantic City Race Course OR Penn National.

And everything else you said.....All of it.
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Old 06-23-2015, 11:25 PM   #3
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The stuff in your last paragraph didnt help me or you for the better. It just helped people who didn't have the time to do real work on the races get a bit closer to the winning players. The speed figs for 'free' in the drf, computer bettors, simulcasting, robotic wagering and all that 'advanced technology' pretty much ended the fun for the player who was at the track live and was only betting against other people who were physically at the track.
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Old 06-23-2015, 11:30 PM   #4
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To add: it amazing how far the jockey colonies in ny and calif have fallen.

Where have all the great jocks gone?
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Old 06-23-2015, 11:39 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EMD4ME
I long for the days where my dad drove me to Monmouth for 10 races and we jetted out to make the 2nd or sometimes first LIVE at Atlantic City Race Course OR Penn National.
Wow. Mth/AC doubleheaders I can see. But you REALLY get points for trying if you did Mth/Pen doubleheaders.

What is that, like 180 miles? Like 3+ hours, maybe more considering traffic from the shore roads to get to the open highway?

Sweet!
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Old 06-23-2015, 11:56 PM   #6
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In the 70's a Saturday night at Scioto Downs with the family, sitting upstairs (dad always sat upstairs when mom came with us) was a huge night out and fun.

Saturday afternoons at Beulah park.....my dad and his work buddies......
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Old 06-24-2015, 12:00 AM   #7
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Look on the bright side fellas...for the younger generation of racing fans, these are the good ole days
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Old 06-24-2015, 05:12 AM   #8
biggestal99
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Belmont Fall Meeting/Meadowlands evening meeting doubleheaders.

ah sweet youth.

Allan
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Old 06-24-2015, 06:11 AM   #9
bildi66
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Arlington-Sportsmans

My bro-in-law first took me to Arlington park in 63 or 64. It was old and grubby with tickets and cigarette butts all over the floor. But it was a palace compared to Sportsmans park. One time I did nine at AP and because I won, I went later that night to Sportsmans for the ten harness races. Of course I lost it all, plus some more.

I also went to Washington for the harness races a few times. What a beautiful place! My brother and I went there one night and we hit 7 of 10 races.

Remember when you wanted to bet $4, you had to go to the $2 window and ask for #6, twice?
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Old 06-24-2015, 06:23 AM   #10
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Give me the full fields again, and I can do without all the other nostalgic components of the "Good Ole Days"...pleasing though they may be.
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Old 06-24-2015, 08:03 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PhantomOnTour
Look on the bright side fellas...for the younger generation of racing fans, these are the good ole days
I am part of the younger generation and these are not the good ole days.
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Old 06-24-2015, 08:24 AM   #12
Ocala Mike
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The Good Ole Days

You know you're old when guys refer to the '80's and '90's as "the good ole days."

Jeez, I thought the thread was gonna take us back a little further than that! For me, the good ole days (referring to NY racing) were when there were 3 flat tracks downstate, no year-round racing, no legal wagering except on-track, no phones, and 8 races, WPS only, with one daily double.
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Old 06-24-2015, 08:25 AM   #13
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If it makes you feel any better, when you were enjoying your "good old days" in the 1990s, there were a bunch of old guys sitting around you who were complaining about how the 1990s sucked compared to the 1970s racing, or 1950s, or whenever.
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Old 06-24-2015, 08:39 AM   #14
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I grew up in Minnesota and Canterbury Downs was my home track. I started in 1986. Here are some things I miss:

  • Racing to a Shinders Book Store or a SuperAmerica gas station for a racing form and being elated when I got there and forms were actually in and they had some remaining. (I once drove to the track --45 miles -- at about 8PM for a racing form for the next day). It was kind of exciting opening the form to see who was racing the next day.
  • Seeing horses like Who Doctor Who, Pentelicus, Princess Elaine, etc running on a Thursday, no less. I remember they would card overnight stakes and we'd see "weekend-type" runners in the middle of the week.
  • Driving with my dad to the track (about a 45 minute drive) and going through the races during the drive.
  • Betting horses, not trainers.
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Old 06-24-2015, 08:42 AM   #15
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With the exception of the bigger fields, I don't think any of that qualifies as "better" than now.

I mean, yeah, it was better there were more racing days back then, but with the horse population now, it's just not realistic (of course, a smaller horse population is not necessarily a bad thing, but that's another story). I'd rather bet on three good days of racing than five days of crap. Belmont's still trying to do five-day race weeks, and it's the saddest thing ever. They're averaging fewer than seven entries per dirt race.

Beyond that, though, what makes today "better" in a lot of ways in not just more information, but more access to information. Back in the day, if you wanted more information, you either had to be at the track every day and compile the data yourself, which is a pain, or buy it from someone else. I know that, in the bizzaro world of Stillriledup, this is a good thing, but it makes things much easier now that data is more accessible.

And, as previously hinted at, if you wanted to follow a track in-depth, you had to be there every single day. I write about Monmouth for every card, but I'm not there all the time.

Furthermore, if you wanted to see a race at all, you had to be either at the track, or watch it from another track on simulcast (but only some of the races). There was no at-home betting, much less phone betting, or watching the races from home. If you wanted to catch a race replay, you couldn't do it from home, unless you had countless video copies of race replay shows.

So was the product better? In many cases, yes. But let's not get too nostalgic here. Racing has never been more accessible than it is now.
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