The Good Ole Days

[Kash$]

Andy Beyer

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by Kash$

The Sports Eye

[thespaah]

"Through the binocs"..NY Post..
John Pricci...NY Newsday
Thoroughbred Action with Harvey Pack
"Pandycapping"...
20k was an average crowd at the Meadowlands for a Saturday.

[Fingal]

Originally Posted by Kash$

Andy Beyer

The pre Andy Beyer days when anyone who made even the most very basic speed/pace figures was way ahead of the rest of the masses & enjoyed the resulting mutuels.

But it's kinda ironic the further time passes the "good old days" become exponentially better.

[nijinski]

Originally Posted by thespaah

"Through the binocs"..NY Post..
John Pricci...NY Newsday
Thoroughbred Action with Harvey Pack
"Pandycapping"...
20k was an average crowd at the Meadowlands for a Saturday.

The early days , 78 and 79 The Big M hosted true champions , Seattle Slew
Spectacular Bid and the great harness racing champion Niatross .
Great racing history for this track back then , many exciting races .

Saw The Bid there twice and Niatross .
Good I didn't make it to Slew's race . Gets beat by the classy sprinter
and son of Dr Fager , Dr Patches !

[dilanesp]

Toro on the turf.

Charlie Wittingham running uncoupled entries and always winning with the larger price. Hmmm.

D. Wayne off the plane.

"And down the stretch they come!"

$5 Exactas. "At Santa Anita, you have to get permission to bet."

Precisionist and Greinton.

The Bid.

The Budweiser Clydesdales pulling the starting gate.

The old Del Mar train station right on the beach.

The media sensation when Hollywood Park first introduced the Pick Six.

The old mechanical tote tickets, separate lines to bet or cash and for different denominations, and no cancellations if the ticket was wrong.

The $50 win window, behind a screen for privacy.

10 minute betting lines.

Having to buy a reserved seat every day, and months in advance for the Santa Anita Handicap.

Free tote bags!

Handicappers in every paper and front page coverage of big stakes.

The media explosion when Seattle Slew came here.

The arrival of Trevor in 1983- he sounded like nothing we had ever heard.

50,000 people at the first Friday night card at Hollywood Park.

Doc Severinson blowing the call to post in Los Al commercials.

Fixed harness races.

Eastern horses like Groovy, Gulch, and Seattle Slew routinely being unable to handle fast California tracks. But when one did, like Broad Brush or Cigar, he generated tremendous publicity and respect.

Symboli Rudolf shipping in from Japan, going off at 1 to 9, and losing.

Ferdinand and Alysheba.

[Kash$]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

Toro on the turf.

Charlie Wittingham running uncoupled entries and always winning with the larger price. Hmmm.

D. Wayne off the plane.

"And down the stretch they come!"

$5 Exactas. "At Santa Anita, you have to get permission to bet."

Precisionist and Greinton.

The Bid.

The Budweiser Clydesdales pulling the starting gate.

The old Del Mar train station right on the beach.

The media sensation when Hollywood Park first introduced the Pick Six.

The old mechanical tote tickets, separate lines to bet or cash and for different denominations, and no cancellations if the ticket was wrong.

The $50 win window, behind a screen for privacy.

10 minute betting lines.

Having to buy a reserved seat every day, and months in advance for the Santa Anita Handicap.

Free tote bags!

Handicappers in every paper and front page coverage of big stakes.

The media explosion when Seattle Slew came here.

The arrival of Trevor in 1983- he sounded like nothing we had ever heard.

50,000 people at the first Friday night card at Hollywood Park.

Doc Severinson blowing the call to post in Los Al commercials.

Fixed harness races.

Eastern horses like Groovy, Gulch, and Seattle Slew routinely being unable to handle fast California tracks. But when one did, like Broad Brush or Cigar, he generated tremendous publicity and respect.

Symboli Rudolf shipping in from Japan, going off at 1 to 9, and losing.

Ferdinand and Alysheba.

Fixed harness races still today

[Prytanis]

Originally Posted by thespaah

If you'd like to reminisce, I posted a link below.
I remember this story like it was yesterday.....

I was at the track that day!
It was the last race,and if my memory serves me right he had an outside pp and took the lead and race over!!

[BlueChip@DRF]

Terpsichorist and her weird gate. Pearl Necklace and her front socks that matched her blaze. Calumet Farm's Davona Dale. Avatar. Wajima. Buckaroo. Sanhedrin. J.O. Tobin. Bold 'n Nasty.

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by nijinski

The early days , 78 and 79 The Big M hosted true champions , Seattle Slew
Spectacular Bid and the great harness racing champion Niatross .
Great racing history for this track back then , many exciting races .

Saw The Bid there twice and Niatross .
Good I didn't make it to Slew's race . Gets beat by the classy sprinter
and son of Dr Fager , Dr Patches !

I was there for the Slew loss under the lights.
In fact the connections blamed the lights for Slew's loss. Fact is, Dr Patches was just better that night.
I got see John Henry win twice there. What a warrior.
Was there with 45,000 of my closest friends the night Larry Holmes took out Jerry Cooney.....They charged $20 to get in for the races and the fight. The place was mobbed. One funny....All of the people whop normally waited outside for the 8th race to go official so they got in free to bet the late double were pissed off...Imagine that. These people were there with fists full of cash to make bets but God forbid they had to pay the two bucks to get into the track.

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by BlueChip@DRF

Terpsichorist and her weird gate. Pearl Necklace and her front socks that matched her blaze. Calumet Farm's Davona Dale. Avatar. Wajima. Buckaroo. Sanhedrin. J.O. Tobin. Bold 'n Nasty.

Nasty and Bold.....Ring of Truth. Ring of Light racing against each other.
Marshall Cassidy showing he actually had a sense of humor..."What a Wabbit on the wail"....
Bob Weems at Monmouth.....Theeere AWWWWFFFF....
Phil Georgeff..Here they come spinning out of the turn"....."And here he is the living legend John Henry"....
Garden State Park Before the fire.
"Westburytote".....Go look up that one....LOL

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by BlueChip@DRF

Terpsichorist and her weird gate. Pearl Necklace and her front socks that matched her blaze. Calumet Farm's Davona Dale. Avatar. Wajima. Buckaroo. Sanhedrin. J.O. Tobin. Bold 'n Nasty.

Tap Shoes and his even weirder gait...

[nijinski]

Originally Posted by thespaah

I was there for the Slew loss under the lights.
In fact the connections blamed the lights for Slew's loss. Fact is, Dr Patches was just better that night.
I got see John Henry win twice there. What a warrior.
Was there with 45,000 of my closest friends the night Larry Holmes took out Jerry Cooney.....They charged $20 to get in for the races and the fight. The place was mobbed. One funny....All of the people whop normally waited outside for the 8th race to go official so they got in free to bet the late double were pissed off...Imagine that. These people were there with fists full of cash to make bets but God forbid they had to pay the two bucks to get into the track.

The free admission and arms out for the programs too

[affirmedny]

waiting for the racing form and the Daily News "night owl" to be delivered!

[levinmpa]

Originally Posted by Johnny V

Some of the posts on here bring back some good memories of the "good old days". I remember when just about every newsstand and candy store sold The Morning Telegraph . Tip/tout sheets were a pretty common site. The old Turf and Sports Digest . Getting a bet down on the horses was no problem in the neighborhood or wherever you worked. Good crowds at the track. But with all that good nostalgia, I of course do much better now. We have better info and figs at our fingertips and the ability to wager at home and cancel bets etc and so much more we could not do back then that now helps the bottom line.

I think I have a couple of Turf and Sport Digest's buried in a box somewhere. I had a subscription for a couple of years when I was a teenager. I remember buying a couple of the "systems" advertised in the back pages.

I guess my original post was more of a trip down memory lane than anything else, but as good as we have things now, there's still a lot that I miss. Since racing isn't covered in newspapers any more, I don't even bother subscribing. I remember the LA Herald Examiner in the 80's was the bomb for racing coverage. The front of the sports page had "Professor" Gordon Jones at Santa Anita and Jerry Antanucci at Santa Anita. They didn't have just one handicapper covering the races in those days. The Pasadena Star News had really good coverage too. In Northern Calif, the Oakland Tribune had really good coverage.

How many So Cal fans remember Turfcraft? They were a tout service that had a race recreation radio show and produced a monthy newsletter called Turfcraft Magazine which listed a bunch of "fit and ready to win" horses. "And that's another Turfcraft Winner"

I remember using the Sports Eye to bet the Meadowlands Harness action when I was in Las Vegas. That was an excellent publication.

I think the big crowds really made the game exciting and made you want to come back. Santa Anita would have 15 - 20,000 on a weekday and weekends were 40,000+ sometimes. There were touts along Huntington Drive on the way to the track, selling their selections. You would see cars pull over to buy the selections. I remember leaving the track and there would be selection sheets showing the winning double that the touts would print after the fact and throw on the ground. I guess some people fell for it.

Yeah, the good ole days were pretty good. But I guess sitting in a comfortable chair in my own living room with a laptop and PPs at my fingertips for any race I want to bet on is pretty good too. Still, I wouldn't mind going back, just for a little while.