Horse Racing – Tracks and Track Organizations
Churchill Downs, Inc.
Churchill Downs is the premier thoroughbred racing track in North America. The track is part of a larger organization (Churchill Downs, Inc.) that includes Hollywood Park, Arlington International, Ellis Park, Hoosier Park, and Calder Race Course as well as the Churchill Downs Sports Spectrum (an offtrack facility) and other interests.
Churchill Downs is located within the city of Louisville, Kentucky, close to the bluegrass horse farms that breed a majority of racing stock in the United States. Racing started at Churchill in 1875, and that was also the inaugural year of the Kentucky Derby, the most famous race in the United States and the lead event in the Triple Crown. The Kentucky Derby is run over a one and one-quarter-mile distance. Colonel M. Lewis, who was the president of the track for twenty years, established the race. As racing fell into disrepute around the turn of the twentieth century (as did all gambling-related activities), the Derby declined in prominence. Its rejuvenation became the life work of Matt Winn. Winn had been with the track in 1875 and saw all of the first seventy-five Kentucky Derby races before his death in 1949. The Derby now draws in excess of 150,000 fans each year. The track’s icon is its twin spires that were built atop its stands in 1895.
Hollywood Park was organized by the Golden State Jockey Club in 1936 and began offering races on 10 June 1936. Although the 350-acre park and track facility is located in Inglewood, California, it was called Hollywood because its founders included film industry celebrities Jack Warner, Walt Disney, Sam Goldwyn, Al Jolson, and Bing Crosby. The track has been open except for World War II years, when the land was used for military purposes. The track was also closed for the 1949 season owing to a fire that destroyed the grandstand. Today the track is the premier West Coast racing venue during the summer months with the one-million-dollar Hollywood Gold Cup. The track also has a short fall season. Hollywood Park had the honor of holding the first Breeder’s Cup races in 1984. They also hosted the event in 1987 and 1997. In 1994 the facility became a racino, as it opened a cardroom casino (see The Racino). Recently the operations were taken over by Churchill Downs, Inc.
In 2000 the Arlington Park International Racetrack was merged into the Churchill Downs Corporation. The Chicagoland Arlington Park has enjoyed a history of glamour and a reputation for elegance. Yet the track that opened in 1927 has had its problems. In 1985 the original grandstand was devastated by fire. Four years later, however, the course made its comeback, reopening with the word “International” in its title and having even more elegant facilities. Arlington track has been a pioneer in several track developments. In 1933 the track installed the first all-electric totalizator that projected ongoing betting activities onto a board that could be followed by patrons. In 1936, the track used the first photo-finish cameras, and in 1940, the first electric starting gates were installed. The track banked its turns in 1942 – another first. Arlington also initiated the trifecta bet (a bet on which horses will finish first, second, and third in a race) in 1971. In the same year Arlington began a commercially sponsored race that offered a prize of $100,000. Ten years later, Arlington hosted the first race with a one-million-dollar purse. The inaugural Arlington Million race was won by John Henry. In 1996, Arlington was the site of the Citation Challenge, the race in which Cigar matched Citation’s record for sixteen consecutive wins.
Churchill Downs purchased Ellis Park in 1998. The racecourse had been built in 1922 by the Green River Jockey Club. It is located in Henderson County, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Evansville, Indiana. The track suffered a decline after the opening of the Aztar Riverboat Casino in Evansville, but with an influx of Churchill capital, it is attempting to increase its viability.
Churchill Downs, Inc., won a license to open Indiana’s first racetrack, Hoosier Park, which is located north of Indianapolis in Anderson. The track began racing with standardbreds in 1993.
The first thoroughbred races were held one year later. The leading race is the Indiana Derby, held in October.
Churchill Downs purchased Florida’s leading venue, Calder Race Course, in January 1999 for $86 million. The course had begun operations near Miami in 1970, featuring a special formula track surface designed by the 3M Company. Churchill is dedicated to returning Florida to the glory days of racing that were enjoyed in the mid-twentieth century.
Del Mar
The Del Mar Racetrack is located near the ocean, just north of San Diego. The track’s season opens just as Hollywood Park’s summer season closes down. The two tracks do have a short overlap of seasons during the Hollywood fall meeting. Del Mar opened on 3 July 1937. The track was founded by Hollywood celebrities Bing Crosby and Pat O’Brien. Many outstanding events have taken place at Del Mar, including a famous match race between Seabiscuit and Ligaroti in 1938 and Bill Shoemaker’s 1970 ride for win 6,033 – surpassing Johnny Longden’s record. New grandstands were built in an $80 million renovation during the early 1990s to make the facility one of the most modern and comfortable in the world. Bing Crosby immortalized the track with his song, “Where the Surf Meets the Turf”.
El Comandante
El Comandante is Puerto Rico’s only horse racing track. It is located twelve miles east of the San Juan tourist and casino district, on the edge of the Yunque Rain Forest National Park. It is a rare track in that racing is ongoing throughout the year five days a week. In the early twentieth century, there were several tracks in the commonwealth. In 1954, however, the government gave the San Juan Racing Association a monopoly over track operations, and they developed El Comandante in 1959 as a modern facility. A newer facility was built in 1976, offering a one-mile oval, 257 acres of landscaped property, a 65-foot-wide exercise track, and a 12,000-seat six-level grandstand. Eight thousand cars can park in the lot. Puerto Rico offers 675 offtrack outlets for online television betting.
Keeneland Race Track and Sales Operations
The Keeneland Race course is in the heart of the Kentucky bluegrass country, just six miles away from Lexington. Keeneland offers a beautiful track with a short season that features the Bluegrass Stakes, an event for three-year-olds that is a warm-up for the Kentucky Derby. Fourteen Derby winners have won the race. Keeneland is also a year-round training facility and a research center with a library collection of 2,000 volumes on pedigrees, breeding, and racing information. The key activity at Keeneland is horse sales. The track holds five sales annually. The January sale is for all horses, the April sale for two-year-olds, a yearlings sale in July and September, and a sale of breeding stock in November. Sales began in the 1930s, but they gained their premier standing during World War II. Prior to the war, horses would be transported by trains from Kentucky farms to Saratoga Springs, New York, for auctions. The military precluded such heavy use of trains during the war, however, and sales activity remained close to the source—at Keeneland. Many stories revolve around the sales. Foals of Northern Dancer sold for over $2.8 million; John Henry was sold for $1,100 in the sale for all ages in 1976 and for $2,200 in 1977. A late bloomer, he commanded only $25,000 as a three-year-old. The gallant steed went on to win $6,591,860 in his amazing career. The Keeneland organization is unique, as it is a non-dividend-paying corporation. All profits are reinvested in capital improvements, used as purses in races, or distributed to charitable or educational operations.
The New York Racing Commission Tracks
The New York Racing Commission owns and operates three major tracks – Saratoga, Belmont, and Aqueduct.
Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York, opened its race card in 1864 to a jampacked crowd of 10,000. The president of the track was William Travers. The first major race at the track was named in his honor – the Travers Stakes. It was originally part of the Triple Crown. A detailed history of the track and also the other gambling (casino) activity of Saratoga Springs is found in Ed Hotaling’s book They’re Off, which is described in the Annotated Bibliography. Saratoga has been known for many of the great surprises of racing. In 1919 Upset defeated Man O’War in the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga. In 1973, Secretariat lost to Orion in the Whitney Stakes. The 1930 Travers Stakes provided that year’s only defeat for Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox. That race was won by a 100–1 long shot named Jim Dandy. Until World War II, Saratoga was the leading venue for horse sales; however, transportation restrictions caused that honor to pass to Keeneland.
Belmont Track is the home of the Belmont Stakes, the Triple Crown’s last and longest event. Like that race, the track is a one and-a-half-mile oval. The course was named after banker and horseman August Belmont. It opened in 1905 but had to suffer through an era of prohibition on race betting that closed down its 1911 and 1912 seasons. The Belmont Stakes was begun in 1867 and run at Jerome Park and Morris Park before coming to Belmont in 1905. Belmont has undergone several renovations, the major one being a $30 million grand stand construction project in 1968. During the period of construction activity, the Belmont Stakes was run at Aqueduct. Belmont has another mark of historical significance. In 1910, the Wright Brothers held an international air flight tournament at the track and drew 150,000 people.
Aqueduct Racecourse began operations in Queens, New York, in 1894. The track facilities were completely rebuilt in 1959. In 1975 an inner track was designed, and a winter meet is held at that track. The facility runs a summer meeting each season featuring two major handicaps – the Brooklyn Handicap and the Suburban Handicap.
Pimlico
The Pimlico track in Baltimore is the home of the middle race of the Triple Crown – the Preakness. The track opened in 1870. The major race of the 1870 season was the two-mile Dinner Party Stakes, which was won by an impressive colt named Preakness. When a stakes race for three-year-olds was established in 1873, former governor Oden Bowie, the track president, chose to name the race after the popular horse. The Preakness was run at Pimlico between 1873 and 1889. Then for fifteen years the race was moved to the Gravesend track in Brooklyn, New York. From 1889 until 1909, Pimlico racing was confined to standardbred and steeplechase events as scandals touched thoroughbred race gambling. The Maryland Jockey Club brought respectability back to the Baltimore track, and in 1909, they once again held the Preakness. Since 1925 the race has been one and three-sixteenths miles in length. The winner receives the Woodlawn Vase, which was created by the Tiffany Jewelers in 1860. The Pimlico track features sharp turns that have proved to be very demanding for horses that have won other Triple Crown events.
Santa Anita
Santa Anita first began its racing program on Christmas Day 1934. Now it opens each season the day after Christmas. The track offers a very beautiful setting, as it is situated in the San Gabriel Mountains in the city of Arcadia, twenty miles northeast of Los Angeles. The track was founded by the Los Angeles Turf Club led by Dr. Charles Strub. Strub ran the operations until his death in 1958. Santa Anita runs the top stakes races in the country during the winter months. The leading events are the million-dollar Santa Anita Derby and the Santa Anita Handicap. The handicap gained instant fame when it offered a $100,000 purse at its first running in the midst of the Depression years. The race has a list of winners the likes of Spectacular Bid, Affirmed, Seabiscuit, Ack Ack, and two-time winner John Henry. The Santa Anita Derby has been won by eight Kentucky Derby winners, including Sunday Silence, Affirmed, Majestic Hill, and Swaps, the first California-bred horse to win the Churchill classic. Both Johnny Longden and Bill Shoemaker rode their last mounts at Santa Anita, and Laffit Pincay had a record seven wins in one day in 1987. Santa Anita hosted the 1986 and 1993 Breeder’s Cup and also the equestrian events for the 1984 Olympic Games. The track facility has been in continuous operation since its 1934 beginnings except for the years of World War II, when it served as the staging area for the removal of Japanese Americans from their homes and into internment camps in the desert. Not all the millions of visitors to Santa Anita over its eight decades have been able to fully appreciate its luxury and elegance during racing seasons – certainly not these unwilling visitors.
Woodbine and the Ontario Jockey Club
Canada’s leading race venue, Woodbine, is located northwest of Toronto. It began racing with trotters in 1874. The track was developed on Joseph Duggan’s horse farm. As elsewhere, the era found bad elements congregating around the racers. In a reaction against the negative reputation that was gathering, Duggan and others formed the nonprofit Ontario Jockey Club in 1881. The club took over the track. The Ontario Jockey Club has also been active in the operation of other tracks, including Fort Erie and Mohawk.
The Woodbine facility was originally in the city of Toronto. A new facility was built in 1956, however, on the outskirts of the metropolitan area. In 1959 the old track was renovated and became Greenwood Race Course. The Fort Erie track across from Buffalo, New York, was developed by the Ontario Jockey Club, but it was sold to private interests in 1997. Today it is the second thoroughbred track in Ontario. The Mohawk track, twenty-five miles west of the Lester Pearson International Airport at Toronto, offers only standardbred racing. Mohawk is the home of the one-million-dollar North American Cup and the Breeder’s Crown, the standardbred version of the Breeder’s Cup. Woodbine itself offers seasons of both thoroughbred and standardbred racing. The track was the home for the Breeder’s Cup in 1996, but its most famous race was the 1973 Canadian International that was won by Secretariat – the famous steed’s last contest. Racing’s popularity in Canada has waned somewhat, as it has elsewhere. The Ontario tracks, including Woodbine, have gained economic strength, however, by becoming racinos. The Woodbine facility now operates approximately 2,000 slot machines.