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Quiet, and Kind of Creepy

In other words, a typical weekday at the track:

I went out to Bay Meadows recently — my first visit to a track in years, I admit — and things were so sedate I thought I’d lost my hearing. Most bets are placed at electronic touch screens now, so there were no wishful last words or giddy collection scenes at the windows, no general clamor or charge. It was more like some horse-theme mall, with gift shops and ATMs. What I took to be Bay Meadows habitues were seated at long tables near a vacant bar in isolated cones of silence, like men at an old porno movie house, their glazed eyes trained on banks of television screens that relayed the labors of horses at distant tracks — Hollywood Park, Belmont, Churchill Downs.

Posted in Track Notes on May 31, 2006

The Rock Turns 100

Rockingham Park

Rockingham Park opened for its 100th season on Saturday in front of a crowd of 4,185. Driver Mike MacDonald started off the year with a bang, winning five races, including the day’s feature with Whosurboy, who set a track record of 1:49 in the one mile Invitational Pace. The New Hampshire track, which opened in 1906 with a 21-day thoroughbred meet, will run a 60-day harness meet this year.

Related: “Happy 100th, Rockingham Park. May you enjoy as many more birthdays as time and the economy allows, and may racing fans come to the track this summer to take part in your celebration.”

In other New England racing news: Mom’s Command, jockey Carl Gambardella, and late Rockingham owner Lou Smith will be inducted into the New England Turf Writers’ Association Hall of Fame this summer.

Posted in Track Notes on May 27, 2006

Attendance Is So Passé

“We’re moving toward becoming a handle-driven track rather than an attendance-driven one,” said outgoing Gulfstream president Scott Savin, contrasting the current mindset with the pre-construction period when free weekend concerts drew crowds of nearly 30,000. “We think you’re better off taking good care of 12,000 people rather than struggling to deal with 25,000.”

Posted in Track Notes on May 16, 2006

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