Best and Worst Tracks You Ever Visited

[chrisforbes]

My favorite would be Saratoga

Worst: Mountaineer Park

I work at Parx so that excludes them ha ha

chris

[marksinger]

Hi Chris. I agree totally!!
I go to Parx alot. No comment.
Mountaineer is horrendous.

[GaryG]

Best: Hialeah, Arlington
Worst: Mountaineer, Hawthorne

[wisconsin]

I visited Mountaineer in 1987, was a real dump, but don't know where it stands today. Best in terms of facilities or best experience? Saratoga, Keeneland and Del Mar rate highly on my list, was not a big fan of Gulfstream's design. Arlington is very nice, too. Lincoln, NE was a real fun crowd, enjoyed that one despite the fact it was a dump as well. River Downs was a blast when they used to run those all long and mostly turf labor day cards, quit going when they quit doing it. Kentucky Downs was like a mansion with a turf course in the backyard, one of the coolest settings anywhere. Strongly recommend.

I go for the love of racing and if they ran them next to a sewage plant, I'd still go.

[ronsmac]

my favorites are a toss up between Belmont, I used to cut class in the 10th grade to go there on Fridays, so there was always something exciting about going there at that age, and the Great Barrington fair, brings back memories of my dad, and helping his friend chart the races for sports eye back in 1983. the worst will always be Pimlico, just a dump, more people looking for tickets on the floor and tables than actually betting.

[jahura2]

Of the 20 tracks i have been to:

Best-Keeneland-Best food, Women, Bourbon, Good Racing and value, very suspect synthetic track

Worst-Beulah Park-No redeeming qualities

Havent had the pleasure of getting to Saratoga or Del Mar yet

[onefast99]

Best thus far-Woodbine and Saratoga
Worst thus far-Suffolk
Most interesting-Del Mar

[TheEdge07]

Best-Keenland
Worst-Aqueduct

[Overlay]

Best: Keeneland, Santa Anita, Saratoga, Belmont Park, Arlington Park (can't really narrow it down further)

Worst: Cahokia Downs

[lamboguy]

best ever, Monmouth and Rockingham

worst ever Blue Grass Downs Peduca Kentucky, Marshfield Fair, Marshfield,Mass.

[ronsmac]

Originally Posted by lamboguy

best ever, Monmouth and Rockingham

worst ever Blue Grass Downs Peduca Kentucky, Marshfield Fair, Marshfield,Mass.

I loved marshfield lol

[RunForTheRoses]

In a way to paraphrase Will Rogers, Never Met...well you know the rest, I've had good times even at Parx when it was Philly Park FTR

Best-Saratoga, Del Mar is really cool too but if we are talking just the track experience then Toga, Del Mar could possibly be better as an overall vacation experience. Monmouth is a great place somewhere behind these two.

For Worst, again no too unpleasant experiences but...Belmont when I was growing up was great (say 1980-early 90s) went there a few years ago and it is such a huge place with no crowd and no ambiance. Aqueduct, had some great times there, haven't been there in years and am not in a hurry to do so, I guess I wouldn't mind seeing the racino just to see what is going on there. Meadowlands kinda sucks, just fyi the outside area is rat infested, in fact I was riding the work elevator there one time and employees were saying the kitchen is rat infested (and I'm talking the 4 legged kind, 2 legged kind probably also exist there). I visited Sportsman's Park in 1992 and liked the 5/8ths track, a little run down but I enjoyed it. Roosevelt Raceway ca. 1985 was a sparsley attended no ambiance kind place, had gone there earlier, mid 70s with family and saw two old drunks in a fistfight, went there as a young adult ca. 1983, remeber the Tequila Sunrises. Pimlico is nothing special but whenever I was there it was the Preakness with all that pageantry.

[camourous]

Best is Saratoga by far, but i enjoyed Indiana Downs a lot when I was out there

Worst has to be Parx, nice casino awful setup for racing not to mention that garbage they pulled last week taking races off the turf.

[Stillriledup]

My favorite tracks are: Monmouth, Del Mar, Santa Anita, Gulfstream and Golden Gate.

I don't really have a "Worst" track, i think they're all charming in their own special way.

[wiffleball whizz]

Best: arlington

Worst: dead heat freehold/meadowlands