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1905 – On February 24, Oaklawn Park Race Track opened its doors to a crowd of some 3,000 race fans. The day was declared a half-day holiday by Hot Springs officials.

1907 – Due to political problems in the state, racing was suspended.

1916 – Racing resumed at Oaklawn. The track is now owned by Louis Cella.

1936 – The Arkansas Derby was born with a purse $5,000.

1945 – Racing throughout the United States ended for an indefinite period at the request because of WWII. A 30-day season was held on November 5 through December 8 for the lost Spring meet. On opening day, an estimated crowd of 4,200 attended, and $189,289 was wagered.

1952 – Oaklawn gained national attention when its handle rose from a daily average of $336,341 to $434,667. Attendance climbs from 7,057 a day to 7,739.

1959 – The Meeting reached two milestones when its averages reached 10,000 in attendance and $500,000 pari-mutuel handle.

1960’s – Par 3 golf course in the infield was used in the off season.

1965 – Arkansas Derby purse increased to $50,000.

1970 – Records continue to be broken. During the 50-day meeting, a total crowd of 556,000 attended and bet $43,366,921. The average attendance was 11,120.

1973 – The first running of the Fantasy Stakes, for 3-year-old fillies, took place.

1974 – The Racing Festival of the South was born.

1980 – More than 250,000 fans attended the Racing Festival of the South. Temperance Hill won the Arkansas Derby.

1983 – Largest Average Daily Attendance Record Set 23,271 (still stands)

1984 – The purse for the Arkansas Derby was increased to $500,000.

1986 – The standing record single day attendance of 71,203 was set.

1991 – The Oaklawn Club was completely renovated.

1996 – Oaklawn Park race track achieved a record handle of $10,653,518 on Arkansas Derby Day.

2000 – Instant Racing, a pari-mutuel electronic system which allows players to wager on previously-run races, was introduced and field-tested at Oaklawn Park race track.

2011 – The average daily attendance grew 3% in 2011 from 2010 levels to 11,649.  Arkansas Derby Day saw an attendance of 62,364

There has never been a turf track at Oaklawn Park.
Horseplayers Association has ranked Oaklawn Park as the 9th best track in all of North America.  And, in my opinion, should be a “must see” by all who love the sport of Kings.

RE-POSTED

With all it’s gorgeous scenery and almost regal pageantry, one tends to ask oneself, why in the dickens is Keeneland such a challenge to the average horse bettor?  Favorites struggle, longshots come out of nowhere and the obvious becomes errant.  And in fact, several recent studies placed Keeneland as one of the toughest tracks in America to handicap.  Favorites win less often at this thoroughbred track located in the heart of horse racing than anywhere else.  It’s enough to stress the casual bettor to the max.

Let’s take a look at major reasons why this is the case:

1)  The quality of the competition. Only a handful of US tracks draw the quality of horses found at this Lexington, KY race track.

2)  The quantity of the competition.  Notice how many horses, on average, are entered and actually go off in Keeneland races. They average over 10 horses per race with some races handling up to 15 entries.

3)  The length of the meets.  A Spring and a Fall meet are separated by about 5 months with each meet having only 16 to 18 days of racing.  It makes for the typical horse, stabled at the track, to maybe get 1 to 3 races during the month and therefore making comparisons more difficult than say a 3 month season.

4)  The ability of the connections.  With the high purse amounts of the races and the tradition surrounding Keeneland it is logical that only the best are attracted.  The list of jockeys, trainers and owners is a “who’s who” of the thoroughbred racing world.  It’s futile to place a bet just based on a top jockey or a leading trainer at Keeneland!

5)  The time of the year.  The Spring meet ends just days before The Kentucky Derby and the Fall meet ends just days before The Breeders’ Cup.  It’s the jockey’s time to shine in order to get the good mounts and the trainers time to get their barn in order. That may be why you see jockeys bringing home longshots and top horses seemingly out for a brisk workout.

So, as you can see, it can be a bit overwhelming and for the unknowing – it can be costly. That is precisely why it is important to be armed with more information than the average Joe Exacta out there.

Keeneland is not just a racetrack, it’s an experience, no wait, it’s the ultimate thoroughbred racing experience in America. So if attending or simulcasting or watching at home and want to get the edge on this most exciting challenge in horse racing – pick up our selections at The Track Philosopher – you’ll have the advantage and make your day so much more rewarding than the “very uptight” man shown above.

Tip: Be the hit of your table and print out several copies of “The Track Philosopher” Keeneland cards for that race day and pass them out to your friends. Make the day more, let’s say, relaxing!

 

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Saratoga Race Course opened in Saratoga Springs, NY on August 3, 1863, and is the oldest organized sporting venue of any kind in the United States. It is typically open for racing from late July through early September.  The race course has two well-known nicknames — The Spa (for the nearby mineral springs), and the “Graveyard of Champions” (for the upsets that have occurred there, including Secretariat).

The grounds at Saratoga Race Course contain several unique features. Patrons can get close up views of the horses being led to the paddock as the path from the stables runs through the picnic grounds. There is a mineral spring called the Big Red Spring in the picnic grounds where patrons can partake of the water that made Saratoga Springs famous. A gazebo is a prominent feature on the infield and a stylized version of the gazebo is part of Saratoga Race Course logo.

Saratoga Race Course is rich with tradition. A lake in the middle of the track contains a canoe that is painted annually in the colors of the winning stable for that year’s Travers Stakes winner. Also, prior to each race a bell is hand rung at exactly 17 minutes prior to scheduled post time for each race. This is to call the jockeys to the paddock.

The 2011 meeting will be 40 days long from Friday, July 22 to Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 5. Saratoga is the home of the 142nd Running of the Travers Stakes on Aug. 27, 2011.

Del Mar Racetrack is an American Thoroughbred horse racing track at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in the seaside city of Del Mar, California, 20 miles north of San Diego. Operated by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, it is known for the slogan: “Where The Surf Meets The Turf.” It was built by a partnership including Bing Crosby, the actor Pat O’Brien, Jimmy Durante, Charles S. Howard and Oliver Hardy.

The first Bing Crosby Handicap was held at Del Mar in 1946 and that same year the Sante Fe Railroad began offering a racetrack special bringing spectators, bettors and horses to Del Mar from Los Angeles. Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s the track became the Saratoga of the West for summer racing. The track had large purses for many stakes, over half of which were won by the legendary jockey, Bill Shoemaker.

The track has a one-mile main dirt track and a seven furlong turf course. The track runs during the summer at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and can stable more than a thousand horses. Del Mar is known for its tan stucco grandstand located directly on the Pacific Ocean.

The first race of the meet on opening day (this year July 20th) starts at 2 pm when track announcer Trevor Denman begins each racing season with his trademark call: “And there’s the roar from the Del Mar crowd as the Del Mar meet is underway.” An estimated crowd of 40,000 plus will be in attendance.

Your Bucket List

If you enjoy the sport of kings and love to spend a summer afternoon at the track then put these two venues on your bucket list and get planning.  Weather it’s at “The Spa” or “Where the turf meets the surf” you will be in for a special treat indeed.

Reprinted from Anonymous Source
Believe It or Not….. Found on a Site Named ouachitabeer
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“Let it Ride” comes from a Rambunctious Road

Posted on May 9, 2013

“Let It Ride,” the 1989 horse racing movie starring Richard Dreyfuss, has a winner’s circle spot in Hot Springs history.

A little-known fact is the cult classic comedy is based on a book called “Good Vibes” by Jay Cronley. The prolific Tulsa World columnist wrote it after an epiphany at Oaklawn racetrack in Hot Springs in the late 1970s.

Released in 1978, “Good Vibes” is out of print now. So it’s both hard to find and expensive when you find it. But the movie is just like the book, minus a few continuity errors, Cronley says. So, unless you have about $400 for a copy of “Good Vibes,” it will be a lot faster and easier to rent it for a few good laughs.

“My favorite scene is still when Trotter is asking all the jokers around the place who they like, and he draws a big line straight through it on the program. I laugh at that every time,” Cronley said. “Oh my god, you should’ve seen the bars across from Oaklawn back then.”

After playing several races at Oaklawn that fateful day, Cronley returned to his cabin at Shangri-La Resort on Lake Ouachita. Being a horseplayer, it wasn’t long before he picked back up his Racing Form to scan the late races. He saw a horse he had to bet. He jumped back in his car and drove as fast as he could back to the track, down a curvy, two-mile stretch to Highway 270, speeding 30 miles due east to 2705 Central Ave. At times, he said, he was “passing cars on the right like a madman.”

He got to the track just in time to place a bet on, no joke, a horse named Rambunctious Road. The gamble paid off. He was in the money. Rambunctious Road– born, 1971, sired by Ramblin’ Road with quarter horse Joy San — paid $200, and a novel idea: A book about horse racing like no one has ever seen.

“I thought to myself, there’s gotta’ be an easier way to make money than this,” Cronley said by phone from his home in Tulsa. “That’s when I said I’ll write about it.”

The book “Good Vibes” has been through at least three publishers since hitting out-of-print status. The movie producer and ex-hockey player Ned Dowd (“Slap Shot” with Paul Newman) found a copy of “Good Vibes” though and together with his screenwriter sister,Nancy Dowd, made a movie out of it.

The night before they started filming “Let it Ride,” Cronley said he and the cast all went to Hialeah Park and Race Course near Miami to get into the spirit of things and bet on the dog races.

“There was this old lady feeding Dreyfuss tips on which dogs to bet, and he made a fortune,” Cronley said. “He was over there hiding his notes like a school boy in class!”

“Let It Ride” may have not received great reviews when it came out, but it soon became obvious those reviewers were idiots. Popularity for the film picked up after a lengthy run on HBO in the early 1990s. Today, one can find clips on YouTube with a list of comments describing it as the “greatest horse racing movie ever,” to “literally, one of the most under-rated comedies of all time.”

At the end of very rough year of racing what better way to end 2020 than with a grand finale at the gorgeous Del Mar Race Track.  This meet is named after the founder of the Del Mar track, Bing Crosby, who is remembered for his huge contribution to Southern California and to horse racing in general.

This is a much needed boost to So Cal racing as it lost one of it’s more famous iconic racetracks, Hollywood Park.

The added season usually runs throughout November and pays tribute to the glamor and excitement of 1930s when Hollywood icon Bing Crosby who founded the track with some of his celebrity pals. The Bing Crosby Season will run a total of 15 racing days – Friday through Sunday – with an earlier daily post time of 12 p.m. on weekends and 12:30 p.m. on weekdays.

The opening day party on Friday usually began with stars and fans showing off their fall finest ware in an outrageous day of racing and revelry.

For those that love horse racing or horses in general this is an awesome way to cap a year. And for those who live too far from the San Diego area, well, over the next few weeks we will just be watching from afar and definitely be “California Dreaming”!

In June of 1954, Mona Best went to Epsom Downs Racecourse in Epsom, UK and won big on the feature race, The Epsom Derby, with a 33/1 ML longshot called Never Say Die.  She won so big that she took her winnings and bought an old mansion with 15 bedrooms and an acre of land sold by the West Derby Conservative Club.

Mona had the idea of turning the property into a club similar to the 2i’s Coffee Bar in London’s Soho district which she had seen on TV. Her idea was to call it “The Casbah” and was intended as a “Members Only” club for her son Pete (does that name ring any bells?), his brother Rory and their musician friends. After a few years of remodeling and painting she opened her club.  She charged a half a crown (about .30 cents) for the annual membership and sold soft drinks, snacks and cakes to her patrons. Mona Best was ahead of her time as she even had an espresso coffee machine.

She began playing records on her simple sound system with big 3″ speakers and later let local bands use her Casbah to play live.  On her opening night featuring a live band, a problem arose. The band scheduled to play spent so much time and energy decorating and promoting the show that they were unable to play, so at the request of a young friend George Harrison,  Mona was asked to go with another band. Not wanting to upset her 300 plus membership, she went with the other group named “The Quarrymen”.

Eventually The Quarrymen would play there 7 times in 1959 and after the group became “The Beatles” with only John, Paul and George they appeared 37 times from 1960 to 1962. She would pay the boys 15 shillings an evening which was equal to just over a dollar a piece! The rest is history as “The Beatles” went on to play larger venues and built up a huge following in England and even in Germany.

After “The Beatles” became known throughout Europe in late 1962 Mona Best turned the club into a tourist attraction. So, one might be led to believe that without the winnings from that Epsom Derby bet, “The Beatles” might not have ever had an outlet to play and, therefore, polish their stars.

Which goes to show that most major successes comes with hard work and a little luck…. so Never Say Die!