Any info/stories from Bowie??

[charm city whizz]

Played golf today in that area made a wrong turn and ended up on "race track road" figured I might as well check it out and it was just a racetrack and a ton of empty space pretty sad

Guess they even stopped using it as a training facility just the eye sore of eye sores now it's hard to look at

Side note the golf courses are amazing in that area


Was wondering if anybody ever have any good stories from this old gem??

[Ocala Mike]

Sure, I'll play. I'm an old-timer, and have been playing horses since the late 50's when I lived in Queens, NY. Back then, NYRA didn't have year-round racing, and there was no OTB. Along about January, Bowie would open for its winter meeting and I bravely (I was only 19 years old) took the Bowie Special from Penn Station, NY on a cold Saturday in late January, 1961. I seem to remember losing all day (not much has changed 55 years later - LOL).

I did get lucky, though, in that the train made it to the track without wrecking; that happened just a couple of Saturdays later, so I'm glad I picked the right date. Read about it here in this interesting piece: http://colinsghost.org/2009/01/winte...reed-1957.html

[charm city whizz]

I recall this train story, that was there??

[Tom]

I heard about that - people left the wreckages and walked to the track, clothes torn, cut, bruised, on line for daily double tickets?

[Ocala Mike]

OK - yeah, here's a better link to the story about the train wreck.

http://www3.gendisasters.com/marylan...reck,-feb-1961

[Robert Fischer]

Ocala Mike - Wow!


I vaguely recall some 2nd hand Bowie stories, my father must have gone once in a while during the late70s/early80s

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by charm city whizz

Played golf today in that area made a wrong turn and ended up on "race track road" figured I might as well check it out and it was just a racetrack and a ton of empty space pretty sad

Guess they even stopped using it as a training facility just the eye sore of eye sores now it's hard to look at

Side note the golf courses are amazing in that area


Was wondering if anybody ever have any good stories from this old gem??

Here is a view on Google Maps...Don't know the year this was produced.
As seen, the grandstand is gone. The track is still in use. Note the tractor harrowing the track. And note the vehicles in the barn area
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Race+Track+Rd,+Bowie,+MD+20715/@39.0060547,-76.7408507,744m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89b7e93817faaefb:0x745a2 b32b50d2a91!8m2!3d38.998333!4d-76.740928
Back in the 80's I remember WCBS News Radio giving race results from the NY tracks..In winter, the results from Bowie were also aired.
I also remember the NY Daily News and The Post printed results from Bowie , Laurel and Pimlico on Wednesdays when NYRA was dark

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by charm city whizz

Played golf today in that area made a wrong turn and ended up on "race track road" figured I might as well check it out and it was just a racetrack and a ton of empty space pretty sad

Guess they even stopped using it as a training facility just the eye sore of eye sores now it's hard to look at

Side note the golf courses are amazing in that area


Was wondering if anybody ever have any good stories from this old gem??

How'd ya hit 'em?....Where did you play?

[affirmedny]

[YT="bowie vid"]NAsdGK72QjQ[/YT]

[affirmedny]

[YT="another one"]1HPXuUgc0Gg[/YT]

[Shemp Howard]

The best part of trips to Bowie were the gin rummy games on the way down.

At $0.05 a point I usually had my day made by the time the train left Philadelphia.

Oh, and betting Tommy Lee in the last race.

[Ocala Mike]

Or Oliver Cutshaw.

[cnollfan]

I attended most of the 1973 meet as a 17 year old. In the grandstand you needed to sit under a light or it was too dark to read the Form.

Unless the track was frozen, which happened on occasion, horses could close from way farther back at Bowie than they could at Laurel or Pimlico

[DSB]

Two things I recall about Bowie:

I seem to remember a story about a train full of bettors getting stranded there in a snowstorm. Might have been the late 50s or early 60s....

Personally, I remember the OTB TV show from New York which featured racing from Bowie in the winter.

Horses I recall seeing run were Amber Hawk, Lexington Park & Port Conway Lane. The latter two each won about 50 races in their careers.

More than 40 years ago now.....

[charm city whizz]

Originally Posted by thespaah

How'd ya hit 'em?....Where did you play?

Played 2 brutally hard courses And long ones that don't match up well for me...

A generally new course oak creek "semi" country club where 580 yard par 5s were the norm, with the heat and action shot 91 but it's gotta be one of the best courses for the price you can play ($45 at 2:20pm) on a Friday

Yesterday in the shadows of Bowie racetrack/course played at woodmore county club...my boss is able to get a group on for $80 a person which is steep...another brutal course where rough was Brutal but we played the easier tees, I got destroyed shot 90 but it was worse then that, scared swings all day long

On a side note many arguments broke out about "gimme" putts.....I dont understand why we weren't just putting them out for the amount of action on the line


back to back hard courses won't result in good results, anybody ever out this way and wants to play some great courses and can usually get them out there just send me a message

I do have pics of Bowie as it is now it's just unraveling track just eroding away I guess where the grandstand is I drove there the weeds are just overpowering the lot, does anybody recall a bridge the horses walked over from the backside paddock? Looked like a there was a overpass over the road that is still there