Colins Ghost

Sketch of Guttenberg Race Track from an 1892 newspaper article

Has anyone ever heard of the Guttenberg Race Track? I hadn’t. I came across a description of the track in an article about winter racing in the National Turf Digest from 1927 and, with a little digging, uncovered a number of interesting sources about the short-lived racing facility.  Turns out, it made quite an impression on those who were there during its brief history.

Remembered not for the quality of racing but for the time of year that it operated — it filled a void in the New York area for live racing when the major circuit shut-down for the season at the end of December.

From 1885 to 1893, the Gutenberg Race Track hosted the only true winter racing during the era (that is, racing where it was actually winter).  The track was located in, what is now, North Bergen, New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan.

In 1927, the NTD described Guttenberg as follows:

“…the track was reached only by ferry and stage or horses cars, ‘The Gut’ had a grandstand that was protected by big windows of glass and mammoth stoves that made a pretense of providing heat, but the betting ring was big one and the fields were ample to attract lively speculation, there were few occasions when weather halted the programs and form reversals did not surprise the players.”

An article published in 1892 in the Lewistown Evening Journal in Maine, under the headline “Of Winter Racing : It is Practiced Regularly on only One Track” offered a comprehensive description of the track soon before it closed:

“Guttenberg, N.J. [is] the only spot or locality on the habitable globe where horse racing had gone on without a single day’s interruption throughout an entire winter season….It must be a blizzard of uncommon dimensions to cause a postponement of the daily Guttenberg races, and the snow must fall thick and fast that can get the better of the all night track shoverler and render the race course impossible to race upon…”

“…Betting upon the races has become a business with a large number of New Yorkers, and although the city poolrooms ‘attend to the wants’ of a great many, there is still a large contingent of bettors who prefer to visit the track.  The daily attendace throughout the winter seldom falls below 3000 and on Saturdays and holidays there are frequently from 10,000 to 12,000 persons present, the price of admission being uniformly one dollar…”

“…The receipts of the [North Hudson Jockey] club independent of admissions are obtained from the rental of bookmaking stands at the steep price of $100 a day for each bookmaker, between twenty and thirty bookmakers being constantly on hand…”

“…There are probably, including trainers, jockeys, stable boys, and helpers generally, at least 1000 souls who live and make their permament homes at Guttenberg…”

Four years after the first thoroughbred meet, in the fall of 1889, Guttenberg underwent major renovations.  The track was reconfigured from a half-mile to a full mile; the grandstand was enclosed and “fitted up with enormous heaters.”  The betting ring was expanded to accommodate an “army of bookmakers.”  The article in the Lewistown paper stated that everything during this renovation ”…was arranged with an obvious view of the permanency of winter racing as an institution.”

The article implied that vagaries existed around the existence and enforcement of gambling laws in the state of New Jersey.  It reported that arrests had been made at the track but “…bookmakers and officials arrested are quite as promptly released on bail by a justice of the peace, who has established a convenient court in an unused stable just outside the track.”

It concluded on this positive note:

“The Guttenberg people, apparently calm in the assurance that they will not be seriously interfered with by the authorities of Hudson county, N.J., claim to be entirely indifferent as to whether the legislature does or does not legalize their money making business.”  Read the full article here

Indifference to the possibility of legislative action proved to be the wrong attitude.  The article downplayed the serious legal issues surrounding the track — making one question the intent and/or competence of the author.  Arrests of pool sellers, bookmakers, and track management had started as early as 1891, putting the operation of the track on shaky ground soon after the winterization of the facility.  The end came in 1893 when a bill passed the state legislature that banned winter racing in New Jersey.  In the words of one legislator “winter racing is an inhumanity and none but the confirmed gambler will patronize it.”  That year, Guttenberg closed its doors forever to horse racing.

[Sidenote: It seems the bill that closed Guttenberg was not the same bill that would eventually end all racing in the state of New Jersey.  It is no coincidence, however, that the enforcement of anti-racing statutes that shuttered the original Monmouth Park also came in 1893.]

GUTTENBERG’S POST RACING LIFE
In 1910, the great grandstand at ‘The Gut’, constructed to keep race patrons warm during the winter months, burned in a fire described as “a spectacular blaze” that “illuminated” the river and was “clearly seen from Manhattan.”    By that time, the track and facilities were owned by an old innkeeper who lived in part of the facility and devoted the track to “automobilists.”   The clubhouse was burned down to its foundation.

Memories of the racetrack remained in 1919. When the land was sold at auction, the notice in the New York Tribune read “At Last, The Old Guttenburg[sic] Race Track Property to Be Sold in Seperate Lots.” (see right)

In 1957, Audax Minor, the race writer for the New Yorker, wrote this in an article about the troubles with winter racing in the northeast:

“….it gives old stagers, who are always grumbling that the younger generation is a bunch of softies, a chance to recall their days in the nineties at Guttenberg, a Jersey track, just across the river from Seventy-second Street, that used to run all winter. (It was a sort of open-air horse room, where you could also bet on the New Orleans and California races.)  No matter how hard it snowed at Guttenberg – and there were blizzards in those days – a crew merely shoveled a wide path around the track for the horses, and the races went off on schedule.”

Today, over a century after the track shut down for good, the area where it once stood is known as the “Racetrack Section” in North Bergen.

SOURCES, NOTES, AND OBSERVATIONS

“Of Winter Racing,” Lewiston Evening Journal, Febuary 26, 1892

“No More Winter Racing,” New York Times, March 12, 1893

“Race-Track Men Please Guilty,” June 1, 1894

“Will the ‘Big Four’ Escape?,” New York Times, April 21, 1895

“Fire Ends Old Guttenburg[sic],” New York Times, January 16, 1910

Minor, Audax, “The Race Track,” December 14, 1957

Note: The name of the track was spelled “Guttenberg” and “Guttenburg” in contemporary sources.  For the sake of consistency, I used the “e” version throughout for this article .

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THANKS FOR READING AND GOOD LUCK!

Red Smith called “…winter racing where it’s summer, strictly for sissies.” He said “…the true test of gallant greed (is) winter racing where it’s winter.”

Maryland commenced running in winter (“where it’s winter”) starting in the 1950s. From this, a new species of horse player evolved. When the now defunct Bowie racetrack started opening in the throes of winter over 50 years ago, it gave birth to what Shirley Povich – the Linnaeus of 20th century sport – identified as the “Bowie Breed.”

Image: Ad for 1957 racing season at Bowie (American Racing Manual)

In 1958, Bowie opened on February 8, the earliest racing in Maryland history to that point. Washington Post race writer Walter Haight began his story on opening day with this: “At a period once called ‘the dead of winter’ in racing and sewing circles, Bowie aims to be alive and kicking.” Alive and kicking indeed, as nearly 18,000 fans showed up for opening day.

Two weeks later, a tremendous snowstorm stranded a reported 3,000 fans at Bowie who were forced to spend the night in the track’s clubhouse. Management canceled the next day’s racing, undoubtedly disappointing those who “stayed over.”

It was this event that inspired the legendary Shirley Povich to classify the “Bowie Breed” in his piece in the Washington Post a few days after the infamous snow-in. Here is what Povich reported on February 19, 1958:

“As one who yields to no horse player in his avidity for the track, it is easy to be resentful of the efforts of some fanciful authors to compare the defeat in the Bowie snow of Saturday to Napolean’s historic retreat from Moscow.

“At Moscow, Napolean chickened out. He abandoned the whole idea, never to return. In the image of MacArthur, not Bonaparte, we shall. Even now it is safe to say of Bowie’s horse players that they are re-grouping. It is safe to say because there breathes no hardier band than the Bowie breed of bettor.

“There has been interruption since Saturday but the Bowie horse player is unwilling to take snow for an answer to his ruling passion. At the first indication that there’s a new pathway to the track, followers of the horse will follow the snow plows in close-order formation. They know the mutuel windows are always under cover.

“They had warning about Saturday’s snows before they set out for the track but 13,354 scorned the thought of a Saturday afternoon at home and fireside. They paid the newly-doubled parking fees, invested eagerly in programs at newly-hiked prices and paid the $3.60 clubhouse admissions for the worst seats at the track…

“…Not only for horse players but for track operators, success can be a heady thing. The Bowie owners gambled on the weather last winter and won, with a spate of sunny days that fetched big crowds who bet an average of more than $1,100,000 a day. Oh it was wonderful and so this year the track people pressed their luck and opened for business four days earlier than last year’s Feb 12 start.

“Now they know how King Canute felt about it when he tried to joust with the forces of nature and hold back the tides. As if wroth at the Bowie owners’ attempts to re-make the calendar, Dame Winter confected the biggest snow job in 22 years as a reminder that, at Bowie, June does not exist in February.

“The track’s big profits of last year may now be wiped out by the obvious folly of a Feb. 8 start of racing at Bowie. The track will begin to recoup, however, at the first indication that the horses are running again. The race track is one place of business where the customers are not always right, but they are always eager.”

Three years later, in 1961, when the Maryland track opened in what was called “the earliest spring in the history of the state,” Red Smith revisited the story in an article titled “The Bowie Breed.” Smith’s view of the Bowie Breed lacked the tear-jerking heroism of Povich. It is, however, brilliant, hysterical, and worth quoting at length:

In reporting the January 1961 opening, Smith wrote “…This year Tuesdays as well as Sundays are left open for two reasons. In the event that blizzards interrupt the entertainment, the programs froze out can be fitted in for the open Tuesdays. Also the five-a-week schedule allows for gambling on 10 Saturdays, traditionally the most profitable days. Mr. Don C. Lillis wouldn’t be president of Bowie and senior partner in a Wall Street investment firm if he couldn’t count his change.

“Though Mr. Lillis’ political convictions are a matter between him and his precinct leader, his choice of dates is obviously motivated by patriotism, a response to young Mr. Kennedy’s call for a fitter American beyond the New Frontier. While Florida and California cosset the covetous to the edge of decadence , Bowie has always striven to toughen the $2 plunger. Indeed, the hardihood of the Bowie Breed is practically legendary.

“Everybody remembers the gallant company, 1,000 strong, trapped overnight in the clubhouse by a Saturday blizzard two years ago. At first Gus Hartshorn, in charge of the Stevens commissary, was worried. He telephoned Joe Stevens in New York: “Mr. Joe, a terrible thing has happened—” “Have you closed the bar?” Mr. Joe asked, putting first things first. Actually, there was no cause for alarm. Gus broke out sandwiches and coffee, and Sunday found 1,000 waifs still contentedly blowing into their fists to keep the dice warm.”

NOTE: The Post published that 3,000 were stranded, Smith reported 1,000. This might be one of those rare occurrences where a story like this moves toward the truth over time instead of the other way around.

“In tribute to these orphans of the storm, a rather sentimental ceremony was conducted on opening day last year. Mr. Lillis imported a waddle of penguins who lined up at the clubhouse gate in their snappy thermal attire and were the first clients admitted. Later these Antarctic refugees were presented to the Baltimore zoo.

“Specimens of the Bowie Breed who show up Saturday will find the entire grandstand glassed-in and heated, with big ventilating blowers to clear the air around losers. Perhaps this is an improvement, yet it must be viewed with mixed feelings.

“Horse players love to suffer. They are never truly happy unless they are miserable—freezing or sweltering or drenched by rain, shiny in the seat and tissue-thin in the sole, elbowed and trampled and bruised in cramped space where the air they breathe has already been breathed several times, unable to find a slat to sit on or a winner to back, stony broke and sinking hopelessly deeper into debt.

“Nowhere has this design for living been honored more faithfully than at Bowie. In the old days the Maryland season always opened and closed there, with a short meeting in the raw rains of April and another among the snow flurries of late November and December. When the spring and fall meetings were abandoned in favor of a single glorious frolic in a winter wonderland, the joint retained all its old-time charm, perhaps even expanded it. Not only could the patron have a perfectly wretched day betting losers but a frostbitten ear might snap off to boot.

“Now, well, we’ll just have to wait and see. Creature comforts are all very well in the plush sinkholes of Las Vegas, but the clientele attracted by strippers and one armed bandits has little in common with the Bowie Breed. When a horse player has nothing to complain about except the jockey’s dishonesty, the trainer’s incompetence, the placing judges’ myopia and the stewards’ indifference to fouls, he may very well quit the game cold and just stay home and beat his wife.

“Attendance and mutuel figures will furnish the answer. In recent seasons Bowie has drawn an average of 12,000 to 13,000 Eskimo’s daily with a handle running above $1,000,000. If the winterized plant starts attracting loafers who’ll just sit around dozing in the artificial heat when they ought to be tearing their pants getting to the $5 windows, Mr. Lillis will have only himself to blame. Once a breed has been fixed, like the thoroughbred, or schnauzer or Poland China, it’s a mistake to tamper with it.”

A “Poland China” is a breed of pig — I get the feeling Red Smith had little affection for horse players but he sure was a great writer.

If you have memories of Bowie, I would love to hear them. Does anyone remember hearing about the “Bowie Breed” when the place was still open? Leave a comment or send me an email: kmart1944[at]gmail.com.

I might do a future piece that is more historical in nature on the track that still stands as a training facility. Check out these great images from Barbara Livingston for the current 2001 state of the once state-of-the-art track. CORRECTION: Thank you to reader Frank for pointing out that the grandstand in these images has since been torn down.

SOURCES, NOTES, AND OBSERVATIONS

“Bowie Ready for Opening on Saturday,” Washington Post, 2/2/1958
“3000 Stranded by Snow At Bowie Race Track,” Washington Post, 2/16/1958
“This Morning with Shirley Povich,” Washington Post, 2/19/1958

I found the Red Smith article from a book titled The Best of Red Smith published in 1963. I bought it for a $1 at a used book sale last weekend — one of my better finds!

“Winter Racing of Despair” — An article from Sports Illustrated in 1979 mentions the “Bowie Breed”

Thanks for Reading and Good Luck!