It’s the end of an era: The Massachusetts fair circuit is gone.
Citing competition from casinos and declining handle, Three County Fair president Alan Jacque said on Tuesday that racing is being eliminated from the fair’s program after 150 years. The Northampton fair was the last of six Massachusetts fairs to offer any sort of horseracing.
I came along too late to enjoy the fairs’ larcenous heyday, but Bill Finley remembers well the days when races were fixed and horses stiffed:
In 1983, I was on hand to witness how shamelessly crooked racing at the fairs could be. Right out of college and working my first job in racing, I was assigned to the fairs by the Daily Racing Form to work as a chart taker and was not too thrilled to learn that I would be making less than $200 a week. What I didn’t count on was that my stint at Marshfield was going to present me with the greatest betting opportunity of my life.
Because there was no press box there, we had to work from a card table behind a bay of mutuel windows. I sat in front of a mechanical board that showed how much had been bet on each exacta combination, information that was not made available to the public. By watching what exacta combinations were taking an inordinate amount of money, I was, essentially, in on the fix. I cleaned up, once cashing, I kid you not, after standing in the same line as a jockey.
More can be read about Massachusetts fair shenanigans in Andrew Beyer’s “My $50,000 Year at the Races.” Lured by the promise of grinding out $1,000 a day just by following the “smart money,” Beyer takes a break from playing the New York circuit to visit Great Barrington Fair, where he loses $1,500 and “the last vestiges of my innocence.”
Posted by JC in Suffolk Downs on 12/21/2005 @ 10:30 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
Trainer Christopher Paasch thought he had something special in Diplomat Lady after the two-year-old filly bounced back from two defeats at Del Mar to win a six-furlong allowance race in 1:09.4 at Hollywood Park last month, earning an 85 Beyer for the performance. On Sunday, he knew for sure that he did when longshot Diplomat Lady broke on top of a crowded Starlet field and won the race by a neck over favorite Balance. Diplomat Lady’s win gave Paasch his first grade one victory. “I feel like jumping out of my skin,” said a very happy Paasch after. The filly was the longest shot to ever win the Starlet, paying $80.
Jockey Tyler Baze professed no surprise at Diplomat Lady’s performance:
“Honestly, I’m not surprised at all. Really,” he insisted. “Nobody thought anything about her, but I knew she had a great chance. The last time I rode her, I never even asked her to run. Then I worked her the seven-eights (1:26 2/5 Dec. 3) and she galloped out the mile really, really nice. I told Christopher Paasch I’d go anywhere to ride this filly, that she is really something special. I felt the favorite coming at the top of the lane, but I just kept riding my filly. She’s got an awfully big heart.”
Runner-up Balance, undefeated going into the Starlet, rated in third for much of the race, until the stretch when she made a very game effort to challenge Diplomat Lady for the lead. Diplomat Lady pulled away and it looked for a second that Balance might try again; she didn’t. The filly was clearly second best yesterday. Third place finisher Sabatini might be one to watch in future races — near the back of the field for most of the race, she made up nearly 13 lengths in the stretch.
—
Diplomat Lady wasn’t the only upset winner in Sunday stakes. Banjo Picker, a 47-1 shot, won the Gravesend Handicap at Aqueduct.
—
Aqueduct’s winter break begins today; racing will resume on December 28 with a stakes race for New York-breds, a Pick 6 carryover, and quite possibly, a bankruptcy filing for NYRA. “How did things go so far?”
Posted by JC in Races/Results on 12/19/2005 @ 9:00 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
– In the Derby Watch: Brother Derek wins the Hollywood Futurity; Bally’s posts Derby Futures.
– Funny Cide preps for a 2006 campaign at Gulfstream. Sidelined for half of 2005 with an achy back, the gelding returned to the track on Friday, working five furlongs in :58.2 handily. Trainer Barclay Tagg suggested Funny Cide could start next in the January 7 Mr. Prospector Stakes and then the February 4 Donn Handicap, which may also be the next start of Andromeda’s Hero, winner of Saturday’s Hooper at Calder.
– Film Maker wins the La Prevoyante. The five-year-old mare trained by Graham Motion beat runner-up Kate Winslet by three and a half lengths in the race.
– NYRA president Charles Hayward said on Friday that “the clock is ticking” toward the day NYRA goes broke. “I’ve said all along we’re going to run out of money by the end of the year.” Hayward is planning to take NYRA into bankruptcy, if necessary, rather than shut down racing.
– Massachusetts racetracks prepare for layoffs as the squabbling continues over simulcasting legislation.
Posted by JC in News on 12/18/2005 @ 3:30 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
