Happy New Year! I’m sure you are like me and looking forward to another year of racing. While racing doesn’t have an official season like other major sports, January is the unofficial opening of the season. This idea is not new, over a century ago, before year round racing in New York, the beginning of the calendar year brought announcements about racing dates at the metropolitan tracks and weight assignments for a few of the nation’s biggest handicap races.  And, of course, January brought talk about which horses in training would make their mark during the upcoming year.

On 28 January 1907, the New York Tribune reported racing dates and published the first “official rating” for the best horses expecting to run in 1907. It mentions legends like the race mare Artful, who was ranked on par with the top ranked male, Burgomaster. Salvidere, the early favorite among the new 3-year-olds of 1907, was ranked three pounds better then Peter Pan. Peter Pan would win that year’s Belmont Stakes and later be inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame — Salvidere would fade from memory.

The Tribune article also reported weight assignments by legendary handicapper Walter Vosburgh for the Brighton Handicap that wouldn’t be run until July.  Many of the big handicap races of the era — like the Brighton, Brooklyn, and Suburban — closed in January and February.  The subsequent announcement of weight assignments for each race’s entries made them a source of discussion and a “great medium” for future betting.

The article concludes with a quote that fans from any generation would agree. One can imagine a race fan reading the New York Tribune article on a cold day in 1907 and nodding in agreement with this assessment from the unknown reporter:

Now that the racing dates for the coming season in the metropolitan district have been announced, racing folks are beginning to grow impatient for the day when the bugle will call the horses to the post for the first race. There is now something definite to look forward to, and plans can even be made for seeing the big fixtures, about which so much interest centres.  Read the full article at the Library of Congress

While changes in racing have brought the bugle call year round, January still brings a feeling of anticipation that has been shared by racing fans for over a century. The conversations one hundred years ago about the merits of Salvidere and Peter Pan, likely sounded similar to the same conversations today about Hansen and Union Rags.

In spite of its problems, horse racing is still the best game in town and one with a history deeper than any other American sport. I look forward to another year following the current racing scene while continuing to dig into the sport’s ever fascinating past.

NEWS, NOTES, AND OBSERVATIONS

“Approval of Weights, Brighton Handicap Allotments Amount to Official Rating,” New York Tribune, 28 January 1907

I have a new feature I’m writing for Hello Race Fans called “The Month Ahead.”  It’s a preview of the coming month in racing — read the January edition here.

In case you missed it, I published my pick for the 2011 Race of the Year in a post last month.

In 2012, I will change things up a bit with Colins Ghost. Instead of publishing one long weekly article, I will be posting more often with shorter historical pieces and links at least once a week.  I’ll be publishing longer pieces once or twice a month.  My goal is to make the site better! This new schedule will give me more time to research and write in-depth articles while still providing a steady flow of interesting content.

Also a change in 2012, I will be sending out a newsletter on a monthly basis instead of weekly with links to Colin’s Ghost content for that month.  If you would like more frequent updates to your email, you can be notified when new posts are added by signing up using the box at the top of this page under the heading “Receive Email Updates” or you can email me your address (kmart@kjmartin.net) and I will sign you up!

Havre de Grace before the 2011 Race of the Year

I am slowly emerging from my post Breeders’ Cup haze and beginning to plan things for Colin’s Ghost in 2012. But, before I do that, I have been thinking back on 2011. Overall, it was a bit of a letdown after two years with Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta. However, there is one moment that stands out in a big way from the past year in racing.

As race fans, its a prerequisite that you have thick skin and the ability to deal with disappointment. The fragility of thoroughbreds can lead to tragedy in the worst case and, at its most mundane, missed opportunities for greatness.

Early this past summer all signs began pointing to a rematch of the 2010 Delaware Oaks and a continuation of racing’s most intriguing rivalry in the Delaware Handicap. My skepticism about it actually happening remained in place until I stood in the middle of the Delaware Park paddock and watched as Havre de Grace and Blind Luck were led into the walking ring. Sometimes, the universe gives us racing fans a break.

Blind Luck prior to the 2011 Race of the Year

It’s easy to forget where Blind Luck and Havre de Grace stood six months ago. After a sub-par three-year-old classic season and the lack of a standout older male, the two fillies were arguably the best two thoroughbreds in training.

By the time of the 2011 Delaware Handicap, the two had already met five times with Blind Luck finishing ahead of Havre de Grace in three of those races. No story in racing was as exciting as the Blind Luck-Havre de Grace rivalry. Two years of not seeing Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta meet on the track, made an impending sixth meeting between the two rivals in the 2011 Delaware Handicap all the more satisfying

Last year, when the two met for the first time in the Delaware Oaks, the hard-charging Blind Luck caught the relative unknown Havre de Grace on a dreary, rainy day in July. That race was Havre de Grace’s coming out party. When the two returned to Delaware Park as four-year-olds, Havre de Grace had muscled her way to the top of the Thoroughbred rankings alongside her rival. She beat Blind Luck in their first match of the year at Oaklawn Park. When the Del Cap rolled around, both stood at the top of their game, as evenly matched as two great thoroughbreds could be.

As I wrote back in July, the 2011 Del Cap was a “deservedly hyped race that lived up to all the hype.” In a race satisfyingly similar to their performance in the Oaks the previous year, Blind Luck wore down Havre de Grace in deep stretch and beat her again on the Delaware oval. The Delaware Handicap was the last time that Blind Luck and Havre de Grace would meet. It’s fitting that it finished where it all started, in as thrilling a race as you’ll ever see.

Of the many races I have seen at Delaware Park in my lifetime, the 2010 Oaks and the 2011 Del Cap will be tough to match. For a track with a long history of high class filly and mare racing, it might have witnessed its greatest moments in 2010 and 2011 courtesy of Blind Luck and Harve de Grace.

One more time, here is the Colin’s Ghost 2011 Race of the Year:

Read my post about the Delaware Handicap from July

Happy Holidays and Good Luck in the New Year! See you in 2012…

Hello all….it’s been awhile since I checked in here.  The Breeders’ Cup wraps my racing season and I usually take a respite from doing any significant historical posts for Colin’s Ghost. In the meantime, I’m launching a new feature called the Racing History Tout Sheet, where I will feature articles, websites, and other racing history related content on the web:

* My inaugural tout goes to a site I have been meaning to mention since it launched back in the summer. Antebellum Times focuses on racing in America prior to the U.S. Civil War. It is well researched and written and is a must follow for anyone interested in the early history of racing in the United States: http://www.antebellumturftimes.com

* Our friend Teresa at Brooklyn Backstretch posted a story about Firenze, the great race mare who won 47 times from 82 starts against the best of her generation.

* This one isn’t racing related but worth mentioning, the American Indian Museum in Washington D.C. has a new exhibit about the impact of the horse on Native Ameican life.

* This past week, Rapid Redux made history with his 20th straight win. Jon White looks at the horse’s next goal: Twenty wins in a single calendar year (he has won 18 of his 20 straight in 2011), a record held by the great Citation.

* Photographer Barbara Livingston has put together a collection of her Gio Ponti images – a wonderful tribute to one of my recent favorites by the best photographer in the business.

* Heritage Auctions has an interesting collection of racing history for sale related to a horse named Bric a Bac. The site describes Bric a Bac as “one of the great race horses in the history of the sport,” a claim only a marketing clown could love. Ignoring that dubious claim, the description and images of the items in the auction is worth a look. It’s a pretty awesome collection but, with an opening bid of $15,000, I’m going to have to pass.

* I’m not sure how I managed to miss a site titled Call to Post that has been around since last year. The site from writer Terry Conway, who has an impressive resume including work for the Bloodhorse, is all about racing history and he is a Delaware guy! Here is a link to his main page, be sure to check out the archives.

* Finally, the Prescott News had an article about the sale of Yavapi Downs in Arizona. We don’t hear too much about racing there, but the Yavapi site has hosted racing for nearly a century.

That’s all for this week, thanks for reading and good luck!

I count myself among those who find things wrong with the Breeders’ Cup for 363 days of the year. But, today and tomorrow, I put all of my issues aside and enjoy the racing. After having the privilege of being in the house for last year’s Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs, i’ll have to settle for watching from home this year. I’ll be betting the card on my Twinspires account and sharing ideas and observation with the solid group of racing enthusiasts on Twitter. Such a scenario is pretty amazing when you think about it — as they say, the future is now.

Of everything that has happened in racing since the first Breeders’ Cup in 1984, nothing has been as profound as the Internet on the racing masses ability to place a wager. Twenty-eight years ago, there were a total of 19 places to legally bet the Breeders’ Cup outside of Hollywood Park. As I was perusing the Daily Racing Form Archives I found this clip from 1984 with a list of the locations offering simulcast betting on the first Breeders’ Cup:

There will be 19 outlets handling simulcast wagering on all or some of Saturdays seven
Breeders Cup races, according to Ken Nungesser coordinator of the simulcast at Hollywood Park.

In the Midwest and South five tracks will handle Breeders Cup simulcasts. They are Hawthorne, Jefferson Downs, Churchill Downs, Lousiana Downs, [and] Thisteldown.

Other participating outlets are New York and Connecticut offtrack betting corporations, Aqueduct, Arlington Park, Bay Meadows, Calder, Charles Town, Delaware Park, Finger Lakes, Keystone, Laurel, Penn National, Suffolk Downs, and Turf Paradise.

As far as betting on the big day, that was it, the number of places to bet the Breeders Cup today can be counted by the number of internet connections in states where laws do not mettle with a citizen’s right to place a wager. A personalized betting window at your fingertips in the comfort of your own home is an idea that would have been hard to fathom twenty-eight years ago.

Hope everyone has a great Breeders’ Cup. You can see my picks and those of my Hello Race Fans colleagues for both Friday and Saturday on the HRF site. We are going head-to-head with the crew from Wireplayers with the loser donating $100 to the charity of the winner’s choice. It should be fun and you can follow our progress on the aforementioned picks pages. I also had the opportunity to write a BC Classic preview piece for CBS Local — check it out here!

As always, thanks for reading and best of luck Breeders Cup weekend. Let’s all cash some big tickets!

Yesterday I posted the first of two parts about the iron horse Jack Atkin. The piece was authored by T.J. Connick and if you missed it yesterday, I encourage you to take a look at part one. Today, we’ll conclude the story of Jack Atkin with a detailed narrative about his racing career. — KM

Jack Atkin after winning the Flight Stakes at Sheepshead Bay in 1909

Jack Atkin’s two-year-old races, aside from victory in the Nursery Stakes at Churchill Downs, took place at the less renowned Montgomery Park in Memphis and Kenilworth Park outside Buffalo. Despite the unconventional preparation, a piece in the Washington Times lamented his absence from the 1906 Futurity at Sheepshead Bay:

The absence of the much-heralded colt, Jack Atkins (sic), is regretted on all sides as much because of the popularity of ‘Barney’ Schreiber as the quiet understanding of the youngster’s ability to trim the best of New York’s ‘babies’ when right.

A spider bite in his stall at Saratoga was understood to have been the culprit, and his career was soon in jeopardy when he developed ringbone. Schreiber was said to have shopped the future marvel, without finding takers, for $2,500. Meanwhile, he was patiently cured of the ringbone and resumed training for his three-year-old season early in 1907. Despite being unraced since victory on June 14, 1906, he was expected to start as a top choice in the Kentucky Derby.

A front-page piece in the Daily Racing Form of April 11 expressed disappointment that Jack Atkin had been sent to New York instead of Churchill Downs to prepare for the race. His training was interrupted by weather and a stone bruise. He skipped the Derby scene in Kentucky. He raced 24 times in New York over the next six months, appearing at  Belmont, Gravesend, Saratoga, Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach, Jamaica and Aqueduct.

The tour of New York produced a record of 24-8-8-4, and earned him a devoted following and respect from handicappers and opponents. He kept good company and made a good showing. On May 16, in his third start, he led in the stretch and held gamely for second in the Crotona Handicap at six-and-a-half furlongs on Belmont’s straight course. Finishing behind him were future Hall of Fame member Roseben, Frank Gill, and Brookdale Nymph. Frank Gill won the Withers Stakes two days later, defeating Peter Pan, who was to win the Belmont Stakes on May 30.

In the last 15 of his 28 New York races, Jack Atkin was high weight in 12, toting second highest in the other 3, and was the betting favorite 9 times – a hint of his future life with handicappers and the betting public.

A dozen races in New Orleans, mostly as the high-weight favorite, kept Jack Atkin busy the following winter. Racing at both City Park and Fairgrounds, he ran up a record of 9-2-1, earning kind words in the Feb 29, 1908 Daily Racing Form:

…in the opinion of eastern racing men he has improved at least ten pounds since arrival here at the beginning of the season….He is a very powerful, big, lengthy, rawboned horse, a wiry, wear and tear looking type that one seldom sees among big horses….he has a true, easy way of going and is a horse of good action.

From April to August, 1908, the tour returned to New York, and Jack Atkin moved to the front rank with a daring and sensational program. His record of 7-7-1 from 16 starts included an impressive list of stakes wins:

* Carter Handicap (7 furlongs)
* Queens County Handicap (one mile)
* Metropolitan Handicap (one mile)
* Crotona Handicap (6 furlongs – track record at Belmont under 137 lbs)
* Parkway Handicap (1 1/16th miles – track record at Gravesend under 124 lbs)
* Mount Vernon Handicap (one mile)

In his 16 New York races during his four-year-old campaign, Jack Atkin was high weight in all but the June 22 Coney Island Handicap at six furlongs on Sheepshead Bay’s Futurity course. He ran a game second under 135 pounds, the six-year-old winner, Dreamer carried 112, and the great Roseben, under 140 pounds, was a well-beaten 9th.

Jack Atkins winning the Met Mile as reported by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1908

The chart comments and news accounts for the New York campaign are peppered with uncharacteristic superlatives. W.C. Vreeland, long-time fixture at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, wrote of victory in the Crotona Handicap:

Winner and loser alike cheered the son of Sain on his return to the scales, a demonstration seen for the first time this year, though common enough in previous seasons, when such horses as Roseben, Ballot, Colin, Sysonby, or Reliable came back from repeated successes. Jack Atkin deserved every bit of the applause and is worthy of the niche he has filled in the public’s heart. Not only did he pick up a crushing impost, give away weight to all his opponents, and then make all his own pace, but he hung up 1:08 3/5 for the straight six furlongs. This lowers the time of 1:10 made by Suffrage two years ago with only 105 up, and closely approaches Tanya’s world’s record of 1:08, made at Morris Park. True, a brisk breeze aided Jack Atkin’s performance, but he had to run straight and hard and fast to do it.

Before returning to New York at age 5 the following May, Schreiber showed his champion to the racing fans at Santa Anita during a nine-race, three-month visit sandwiched between two breaks of a few months each. He clocked a record of 6-2-0 in California.  In each race he went to the post as favorite, never at more than even money, and ran under imposts of 130, 132, 135, 138, 140, and 148 pounds.

The 5-year-old New York campaign of 15 races ran from May to October of 1909, from which Jack Atkin posted a record of 7-3-4, despite toting high-weight in every race. Walter Vosburgh assigned 140 pounds on three occasions. Among the highlights was the Flight Stakes on September 6, when Jack Atkin was left at the post and came flying with an unforgettable display of speed to score a victory – a demonstration of terrific acceleration and thrilling determination.  His last career victory in New York came under 138 pounds in the Richmond Handicap at Jamaica on October 19.

As top earner among the 5-and-older set in 1909 and 1910, he followed his 1909 New York races with a nomadic tour that gave racing fans in many places a chance to root him home. Over a span of two years, he raced at Pimlico, Moncrief Park (Jacksonville, FL), Aqueduct, Belmont, Woodbine, Gravesend, Hamilton (Ontario), Empire City, Highland Park (Ontario), Blue Bonnets (Quebec), Fort Erie, Churchill Downs, Latonia, and Terrazas Park (Juarez, Mexico).

The first 13 months of wandering commenced with victory on October 23, 1909 at Pimlico, and concluded with victory in the Omnium Stakes on November 17, 1910 at Latonia. Packing high weight, he compiled a 15-4-6 record in 31 starts, with the crowning moment an unlikely victory at 1 ¼ miles at Fort Erie on October 10, 1910. Wiring a field of six and lasting by a head in a game stretch drive, Jack Atkin scored at odds of 10-1.

Barney Schreiber and associates were said to have made an absolute killing in the race, a great tribute to their favorite horse and their enduring faith in him. A quality field was assembled for the race, and the favorite, the four-year-old Olambala was enjoying a terrific season, with victories in the Suburban Handicap, the Brighton Handicap, and the Saratoga Handicap among his triumphs. Jack Atkin’s courageous victory was his penultimate lifetime win, the first at ten furlongs, and it established a new Canadian record of 2:04.

Photograph of Jack Atkins from the El Paso Herald announcing his retirement in 1911

Famed sports writer Bert E. Collyer, said it best when he wrote at the twilight of Jack Atkin’s career:

Now seven years of age, Jack Atkin has raced almost continuously winter and summer, and a more consistent racer never wore iron.

Welcome back Jack Atkin — champion, iron horse, and international star for all seasons — and thanks to Colin’s Ghost for hosting our rediscovery of his fine career.

SOURCES, NEWS, AND NOTES

This was the second of two parts, the first part can be found here.

Images above are from the following:

El Paso Herald,  29 April 1911 (Library of Congress)

New York Tribune, 12 September 1909 (Library of Congress)

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 14 May 1908  (Fulton Postcards)

Author T.J. Connick provided this insightful commentary regarding his research:

As a subject of study, Jack Atkin is obscure because secondary sources have little to tell us. Fortunately, bound copies of the Morning Telegraph and Daily Racing Form chart books yield the horse’s compelling story in the familiar shorthand of the race chart. Jack Atkin’s career was extraordinary in many ways: winning at 23 different tracks, scoring 56 victories, toting heavy weight, racing four seasons, producing startling form reversals by winning “beyond his distance”, etc. Nothing can match a comprehensive database of charts to paint the big picture without missing any of the details.

To complement the charts, contemporary news accounts and racing columns by the likes of Bert Collyer (Chicago American) and W.C. Vreeland (Brooklyn Eagle) revealed the horse’s “star appeal”, portraying a remarkably popular racing personality. The amount of racing coverage in the era’s newspapers never fails to amaze, and we’re fortunate indeed to have electronic access to the treasure by the good graces of individuals and organizations like Kentuckiana Digital Library (Daily Racing Form collection), Tom Tryniski (FultonHistory.com), Library of Congress (Chronicling America), and University of California Riverside (California Digital Newspaper Collection).

A sincere thanks to T.J. Connick, who has made a real contribution to racing history with this piece and we are thrilled to be the platform for him to share it. I hope it is the first of many articles that Mr. Connick writes for Colin’s Ghost.

Written by T.J. Connick, Copyright 2011 by Strategic Arts, Inc.

This week, for the first time in this site’s three year history, we have a guest post. T.J. Connick who has dazzled Colin’s Ghost readers with many insightful comments has written a brilliant piece on the long forgotten Jack Atkin. The iron horse Jack Atkin was beloved in his time but has been lost in the space between the present and his running days over a century ago. I hope the story of Jack Atkin by T.J. Connick will revive the lost memory of a worthy racer. — KM

Jack Atkin as a 3-year-old from the Daily Racing Form

Poking around in the attic of horse racing history will turn up some surprises, a seldom-visited section of the past can introduce a fresh face: once famous, long forgotten, and worthy of a restored place in the sun. Such is Jack Atkin.

A weight-carrying sprinter with many starts and many wins, Jack Atkin ran in the years leading up to racing’s banishment in many quarters. Learning of his racing exploits requires a good deal of digging, so it is hoped that this profile kindles new interest in a wonderful performer who is worth being remembered.

The son of Sain, out of El Salado, he was foaled at Barney Schreiber’s expansive Woodlands Farm in St. Louis County, Missouri in 1904. Nearly eight years later, Jack Atkin retired from racing to join his sire at Woodlands. The intervening years were an odyssey, fighting the heartless headwinds of anti-gambling fever that infected state governments from coast to coast.

Possessed of brilliant and overwhelming speed, he drew crowds of devoted fans, and inspired high praise from turf writers, trainers, jockeys, and even the laconic authors of racing charts. His appearance at a race meeting assured a good turnout, including a serious set of plungers who consistently bet him down to a short price. He broke records at distances from six to ten furlongs; he campaigned in all seasons; he ran many of the era’s best horses off their feet; and he performed with uncanny consistency for years on end.

Jack Atkin’s effect upon contemporaries was profound. From fans and supporters came adoration, from handicappers came punishing weight assignment, and from outclassed competition came capitulation. In six years of hard campaigning, Jack Atkin established himself a great star, but his fame did not endure. In life he emerged from obscurity with a career of great achievement; in the century since he has returned to the shadows.

Jack Atkin beat only one of his four opponents in his first race at Oakland, California on Saturday, February 3, 1906, an unrestricted four-furlong event for two-year-olds. The chart didn’t mince words, “Jack Atkin green.” At 60-1 and beaten 10 1/2 lengths, those in the crowd that day would never have imagined that they saw the debut of a racehorse who would face the starter 130 times more, compiling a record of 56 wins, 31 seconds, and 18 thirds. By the time he ran his 131st race, a handicap at Woodbine on September 23, 1911, he was no longer green.

Named for a bookmaker, Jack Atkin carried owner Barney Schreiber’s purple, orange sleeves, and red cap to victory at 23 race tracks in three countries. Feared in sprint races, he was believed invincible without heavy weight assignments from the handicapper. He also ran 38 races at distances from a mile to a mile-and-a-quarter, in which he recorded 9 wins, 12 seconds, and 8 thirds.

Regarded as a serious contender for the prestigious New York Futurity and the Kentucky Derby before injury kept him from both events, he was the nation’s top purse winner among five-year-olds and up in 1909 and 1910. He ran 112 races from the May 9 commencement of a belated 3-year-old campaign to his final victory in the Tampico Handicap in Juarez on December 10, 1910. In the three-and-a-half busy years he was never fully out of training, with only two short absences dictated more by the logistics of his stable’s far-flung, international operations than by any need for rest.

His record fails to communicate the effect that Jack Atkin had upon observers, and speed alone does not explain it. The answer seems to lie in the beautiful action and response of Jack Atkin on the track. The big colt moving over a piece of ground evidently made an electric impression on his audience.

A rangy, powerful-looking creature, he regularly made sudden, nimble moves that were well remembered, win or lose. In victory, such moves were followed by a machine-like shift to a frictionless glide, cruising under the wire without effort. News accounts, sports columns, running lines, and chart comments, all seemingly declared in unison throughout his long career: “Boy, you should have seen Jack Atkin.”

Part II: The Racing Career of Jack Atkin

SOURCES, NEWS, AND NOTES

Author T.J. Connick provided this insightful commentary regarding his research:

As a subject of study, Jack Atkin is obscure because secondary sources have little to tell us. Fortunately, bound copies of the Morning Telegraph and Daily Racing Form chart books yield the horse’s compelling story in the familiar shorthand of the race chart. Jack Atkin’s career was extraordinary in many ways: winning at 23 different tracks, scoring 56 victories, toting heavy weight, racing four seasons, producing startling form reversals by winning “beyond his distance”, etc. Nothing can match a comprehensive database of charts to paint the big picture without missing any of the details.

To complement the charts, contemporary news accounts and racing columns by the likes of Bert Collyer (Chicago American) and W.C. Vreeland (Brooklyn Eagle) revealed the horse’s “star appeal”, portraying a remarkably popular racing personality. The amount of racing coverage in the era’s newspapers never fails to amaze, and we’re fortunate indeed to have electronic access to the treasure by the good graces of individuals and organizations like Kentuckiana Digital Library (Daily Racing Form collection), Tom Tryniski (FultonHistory.com), Library of Congress (Chronicling America), and University of California Riverside (California Digital Newspaper Collection).

Be sure to check back tomorrow for part two of the Jack Atkin story….thanks for reading and good luck!

Written by T.J. Connick, Copyright 2011 by Strategic Arts, Inc.

The Laurel Park Crowd, 1931 (Baltimore Sun)

In 1911, one hundred years ago this month, Laurel Park opened for business. Laurel started during a track building boom in Maryland. With racing dark in New York because of a gambling ban, and racing legal in only a handful of states, Maryland opened Laurel, Havre de Grace, and Bowie race tracks in a short span of four years.

With Pimlico – the grand-daddy of all the Maryland tracks — already thriving, the state seemed poised to take over the role as the center of American racing, a title previously held by New York. While the shift to Maryland as a primary racing hub was thwarted by the re-opening of the New York tracks in 1913, the state had a long and prosperous stretch spanning much of the twentieth century.

The opening of Laurel marked the beginning of the golden years of Maryland racing and has been the site for a multitude of important racing moments. We have focused a great deal on the Washington D.C. International in past postings about Laurel, but this week, in celebration of its centennial, let’s go back to the beginning. What follows are a series of quotes from newspaper accounts about Laurel Park’s opening day one hundred years ago:

“Current Sporting Gossip,” The (New York) Sun, 1 October 1911:

Racing within reach of New Yorkers will begin at Laurel, Maryland tomorrow, when the new mile track built by H.D. Brown, the well known promoter, is thrown open to the public. The plant has involved an outlay of $250,000, and Brown has met with encouragement from the stewards of the Jockey Club together with the patronage of some of the best known horsemen in the country. The track can be reached by trolley from Washington in less than half an hour, while from Baltimore it is one hour’s journey by steam. Under the laws of Maryland open bookmaking is legal so that probably thirty pencillers will line up in the betting ring.

The H.D. Brown referenced above was better known as Curly Brown. He was an important but elusive player in racing during a period starting in the early 1900s into the 1930s. The California businessman (as he came to be described) promoted, managed, and owned race tracks in Louisiana, Florida, Chicago, and Cuba (to name a few) during his career. He was the original owner of Laurel Park but sold it just three years after it opened.

Advertisement in the Washington Herald from October 1, 1911

“Racing at Laurel starts tomorrow,” Washington Herald, 1 October 1911:

All day yesterday there was hurry and bustle around the new racing plant of the Maryland State Fair Association, between the arrival of horses from New York and Canada, and other racing centers and the visiting of lovers of the thoroughbred, who have read and heard so much of Laurel as a racing center…

…There had not been a case of sickness at the track and the stables are built on a high elevation which makes them dry and fit to stable in at all times, and under all weather conditions. This is one point on which Manager [H.D.] Brown is particularly strong, He believes in looking after the horsemen as well as the public, and in his way draws many more to race with him than by overlooking them.

“Laurel Track to Have Slow Going,” Washington Times, 2 October 1911:

The new racing venture at Laurel starts its thirty day meeting this afternoon with an excellent program of six races…

…Unfortunately, these events will have to be run off over a slow track rendered doubly slow by the rainfall of last night. This circumstance will, undoubtedly, cause many scratches, and will give the handicappers a puzzling task to locate the winners. Speculators, indeed, will be treading on dangerous ground all through the meeting, and at times discretion will be better part of valor…

…Carpenters and laborers were hustling every minute of the day getting the plant in shape for the opening and work will be kept up to the very moment when the bugle blows for the first race this afternoon.

“Rain Makes Heavy Going at Laural,” Washington Times, 3 October 1911:

It was a most parlous [precarious] day for a new enterprise to make its initial bow to the public, and conditions were about as bad as they could be.

Rain mud and confusion were everywhere, yet for all that a crowd of at least 3,000 people turned out. With fair weather and normal conditions the attendance would easily have been 5,000…

…The program which held forth a glorious promise on its face was shot to death by scratches. The track, new and not yet worked into shape, was rendered a quagmire by the rain, and owners scratched until the tuck [energy] was taken out of nearly every event. Notwithstanding this, there were some warm contents and close finishes, which gave the crowd a chance to work off some of its pent-up enthusiasm…

…Washington and Baltimore contributed in about equal proportions, trains being run from each city right up to the track of the grandstand. A big contigent from New York was also on hand. The old guard, the regulars who follow the game from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to the Gulf, were there, as they always will be, whenever the bell taps and the bugle blows.

Pimlico and Laurel ran concurrently in 1911 and the New York Sun wrote on the eve of Laurel’s first opening day: “…Maryland will be the centre of racing in this country for a month and will compel the sport in Canada to take a back seat.” However, it also stated: “It remains to be seen whether both of these Maryland tracks can survive competition, whether there will be enough patrons to cover running expenses and whether enough good horses can be secured to provide really high class racing.”

While the concerns of 100 years ago didn’t stop Laurel, it’s interesting that the same issues about its survival have come back albeit in a different form. Laurel no longer worries about competition from within but competition from neighboring states that is further amplified by the general decline of the sport in recent years. It seems a long shot that racing will survive another 100 years at Laurel, one of the last two remaining racing venues in the once proud racing state of Maryland.

SOURCES, NEWS, AND NOTES

“Current Sporting Gossip,“ The (New York) Sun, 1 October 1911

“Racing at Laurel starts tomorrow,” Washington Herald, 1 October 1911

“Laurel Track to Have Slow Going,” Washington Times, 2 October 1911

“Rain Makes Heavy Going at Laural,“ Washington Times, 3 October 1911

Check out some great Laurel photos and historical highlights from a site called Press Box

Next week we will have our first article authored by T.J. Connick.  You know T.J. from the detailed contributions he has made to this site (and others) in the comments section.  T.J. has written an outstanding piece about a long forgotten horse named Jack Atkin that I will be posting next week

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Joe Palmer

I was inspired over the weekend reading Glenye Cain Oakford’s outstanding piece for the Daily Racing Form about the history of Keeneland. In fact, it might be the best history piece I have ever read in the DRF. It is a meticulously researched with an incredibly thoughtful selection of quotes from a variety of primary sources.

As I was reading Oakford’s Keeneland history, I remembered a piece from one of my all-time favorite race writers and thought it would be appropriate to post this week.

The piece I would like to share is from the great Joe Palmer, newly inducted member to the Racing Hall of Fame’s Media Roll of Honor. The article comes from This Was Racing the compilation of Palmer’s writing put together after his untimely death in October 1952.

The article is undated but the date of its publication isn’t  important.  The important thing to know is that Palmer had been in Kentucky working at the Bloodhorse for about one year when Keeneland opened its doors in 1935. He was there from the beginning. He knew the character Jack Keene and the men who made Keeneland a reality. His recollections of Keene and the track that bears his name are an absolute treasure.

Here is the late, great Joe Palmer’s “Keeneland, With Keene” in its entirety:

After Bowie and Jamaica, and even Havre de Grace which has kept some of its original friendly tone, it was like old slippers and a last cigarette before the fire to have a day’s racing at Keeneland. It may be just because of a sentimental recollection, for when this onlooker drank his first julep in the big stone clubhouse there it was still the property of John Oliver Keene, a man with a peculiar vision, who, nevertheless, did not anticipate the monument to his memory that Keeneland had become.

Jack Keene, as he was called all over the country — what the Russians called him when he trained there I cannot say, but it was unprintable because he won so many races — was a blunt, sincere, gruff, and fundamentally kind man, with a high standard of perfection. If he had engineered the Pyramid of Ceops he would have decided that two or three more twenty-foot layers of stone would have made it better, and he would have got them too whatever objections the Egyptian treasurer might have made.

He built a track at Ashland in the early twenties which may stir a few vague memories with the name of Raceland. It was to cost about $350,000 — dollars were dollars in those days — by the original plans, but when Keene got through the bill was nearer $750,000, because he kept on seeing ways he could make it better and he kept on riding over the stockholders, who could see red ink in every sunset. The stockholders were right too; Raceland did not even leave a ghost.

The point is that when Jack Keene started to build, it was the thing to be done, or perhaps just the slow and satisfying dream of doing it, which outweighed the material considerations. So when he set about building Keeneland – as a private training track and a place to entertain his friends, mind you – it was fairly obvious to these same friends that the vision would outpace construction.

Henry Kaiser couldn’t build as fast as Keene could dream. Why he wanted a mile and a sixteenth track instead of the conventional mile this onlooker couldn’t say. Why he wanted a clubhouse which now houses the office of Keeneland, a library, a couple of dining rooms, an apartment or so, and still leaves spaces for some 800 people to see the races, isn’t quite clear, either; nor why he wanted stalls for a hundred horses in training.

In the nature of things he ran out of money — of building money, that is, though he still held the track of land that Patrick Henry had granted to his ancestors in the days when Kentucky was part of the Old Dominion [Virginia] and he still could maintain his stud and racing stable. But matters were easier all around when he sold off the section which is now Keeneland, for approximately $100,000 to the group of men who founded the present Keeneland track.

These men — Hal Price Headley, Major Louie A. Beard, and others — had a vision, too, but theirs took in things like bank balances and tangible assets, and they built a racetrack solid and four-square and satisfactorily financed, and essayed the first venture in the fall of 1935.

This tourist does not customarily pay much attention to the totalisator but [in 1935] we watched that one like a flock of cats around a mouse hole, though I am aware that this simile is both ill-chosen and somewhat mixed. It ran-up, in ten days of racing, approximately what is bet on the last race at Jamaica any Saturday. The average was $56,000 a day, and you will get some idea of the husbandry of the Keeneland organization when I say that was enough.

Well, things have come on since, and no one has to watch the totalisator any more. The big stables gave generously of their horses, even when they ran for peanuts. The officers not merely served without salary; they paid their way in. They put the thing on a non-profit basis when it seemed the non-profit angle would take care of itself, and universities and foundations have reaped the returns which came later.

What a beautiful thing that all these many years later, Keeneland continues as it did when Palmer wrote these words. I, like Palmer, have a real appreciation for Keeneland’s operation. As it says on their website “Keeneland operates as a for-profit with a non-profit mission.” This philosophy is how many successful non-profits work and one that seems perfect for racing. It’s amazing what can be done when a race track doesn’t have to answer to shareholders and sees its role as community sustaining instead of simply bottom line profit driven. Certainly, not every track can be Keeneland but it would behoove all those involved in racing to see its operating model, where profits are reinvested back into the community, as the ideal.

Sources, News, and Notes

Joe Palmer, This Was Racing, edited by Red Smith (1953)

Here is the link to Glenye Cain Oakford’s tremendous Keeneland history in the Daily Racing Form. Needless to say, it is well worth a read or two.

Read more about Joe Palmer in an article from Bloodhorse about his recent honor from the Racing Hall of Fame

Brief history of Keeneland from their press office

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Yes, the marketing people at NYRA prefer “Super Saturday” but it will always be Jockey Club Gold Cup day to me. Saturday brought a stable of stars to the big oval at Belmont and most would agree that we saw a few horses that will be major players come Breeders Cup in November.

We lost the likely favorite for the Breeders Cup Turf, Cape Blanco, who was injured while winning the Joe Hirsch, but winners on the day like Havre de Grace, Stacelita, Uncle Mo, and Flat Out will all be bet heavily on Breeders Cup weekend.

The most intriguing of those four is Havre de Grace who continued her brilliance by easily winning the historic Beldame.  All indications are pointing for her to start in the Breeders Cup Classic.  If that is the case, it will be an opportunity to have a filly win the “big race” for two out of the last three years.  The Golden Age of fillies and mares continues. Let’s hope we see her in the Classic lined up against Uncle Mo, Flat Out, Game on Dude, and Tizway. I think she has a huge shot to beat whatever field she might face and a win in the Classic would make her a major player for Horse of the Year. She would be the third straight female to win that award which would be an unprecedented streak.

As always, Saturday at Belmont was great fun.  It’s amazing the number of people I have connected with by starting this site.  Anyone who thinks that racing is an “old persons” sport should tag along with me to the track sometime. There is a new generation of racing fans that are a dedicated and enthusiastic group.

Speaking of dedicated and enthusiastic groups, I am proud to be part of a new racing initiative being spearheaded by the talented Valerie Grash of Foolish Pleasure and Fillies First fame. The group is called TURF and the site went live this week. Valerie has assembled quite an esteemed group of racing writers, be sure to check it out: http://www.turfbloggers.blogspot.com/

I’ll be back next week with more racing history. In the meantime, here are a couple of photographs I snapped of the big day at Belmont:

Cape Blanco in the paddock before winning the Joe Hirsch

Two-year old champion Uncle Mo on his way to the track before winning the Kelso. It was his first win since March and the second win of his 3-year-old campaign.

Trainer Larry Jones and jockey Ramon Dominquez with the fabulous filly Havre de Grace

The 2011 Beldame winner Havre de Grace

Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Flat Out leads the pack coming down the historic Belmont Park stretch

All eyes on Flat Out in the winner's circle

I won’t be making the trip to Breeders Cup this year so this past Saturday was one of my last track visits of 2011.  Another racing season has flown by, before we know it we will be talking about the Derby colts again.

Thanks for reading and good luck!

This Saturday October 8th from 10am to 5pm the beautiful town of Havre de Grace, Maryland will host the fourth annual Graw Days Festival to celebrate the race track that made the town famous. The track at Havre de Grace, known by the locals as “The Graw,” opened in 1912 and closed in 1950. (read more about it here).

Graw Days is always a great event and the Colin’s Ghost crew will be in attendance this year. Hope to see you there!

You can learn more about Graw Days at the Havre de Grace Main Street information page or check out the Graw Days Facebook page for additional details and the latest information.