This is the thirteenth of a major series of articles concerning racetracks in the USA. We continue our review of USA racetracks with a final look at closed tracks in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts –
Closed –
Readville Trotting Park
By the end of the nineteenth century, harness racing was one of the most popular sports in Boston and throughout USA when one of North America’s premier tracks, Readville Trotting Park opened in the Hyde Park section of Boston in 1896. It could be argued that Readville Trotting Park is the most significant harness track in the history of the sport. For three decades from the late 1800s through the 1920s, it was a leading Grand Circuit track, a mecca of the sport and site for three momentous events that made worldwide headlines : first 2:00 trot, first 2:00 pace and first harness track to offer a $50,000 stake. Many of the country’s leading owners, trainers, drivers and horses including the legendary Dan Patch raced at Readville.
Located approximately nine miles southwest of Boston’s CBD, the land on which it was built was the site of Camp Meigs used during the American Civil War. The training ground for the first unit of black soldiers to fight for the Union army, 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry and the 5th Cavalry. The 1989 movie “Glory” for which Denzel Washington won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor portrays this period of United States history. The closure of Camp Meigs allowed for a half mile track built in its place and used for brief harness racing meets from 1869 to 1895.
In 1896 New England Horse Breeders’ Association took over the track building a state of the art one mile oval at the foot of the Blue Hills along the banks of the Neponset River. The new facilities included a grandstand that could seat up to 3,400 patrons, restaurant, hotel and stabling which housed up to two hundred and fifty horses. The Norfolk County Gazette of 24 August 1896 described it as a “model of comfort and good taste where from every point from start to finish can be seen…with a restaurant underneath, a clubhouse, a hotel and a stable area occupied by 250 ‘flyers’ (Standardbreds).”
The sub grading of the track was sand and gravel on top of which was laid three or four inches of loam and a top dressing of clay. The surface was lightning quick and soon produced record results. The refurbished grounds included an imposing entrance gate.
Opening on Tuesday 25 August 1896 it featured four days of Grand Circuit racing. Fans were brought by rail from New York and Connecticut to a depot near the track gates while a separate train system dropped off Boston patrons to within a short distance of the magnificently columned entrance.
Horse auctions organised by well-known companies such as Fasig-Tipton Co. were held on the Readville grounds with gentlemen driving clubs competing there. Readville was a major source of news for many newspapers and journals with sports pages, society pages and other sections filled with daily happenings from the track.
Becoming a destination for the sport’s greatest horses, drivers, trainers and prominent owners. Great drivers in attendance included Harry Brusi, Lyman Brusi, Ed Allen, Edward F. “Pop” Geers, Walter “Long Shot” Cox, W. H. “Knapsack” McCarthy, David McClary, Alonzo “Lon” McDonald, Thomas W. Murphy, Nat Ray, Townsend Ackerman, Henry Titer, Robert Proctor, Millard Sanders, William Fleming, Ben White, Billy Andrews, Lester Dore, and Myron McHenry, trainer and driver of the immortal Dan Patch.
Among the great horses who raced there, many of them Hall of Famers, were Dan Patch (who won all three of his starts), Single G, Peter The Great, Sweet Marie, Abbedale, Joe Patchen, Uhlan, Margaret Dillon, Peter Manning, Czar Worthy, Peter The Brewer, Jimmy McKerron, The Senator, Major Delmar, San Francisco, Tiverton, Charley Herr, Cresceus, Aron, Ralph Wick, and three horses who would take their place in history : Star Pointer, Lou Dillon and Allen Winter.
Star Pointer –
Harness racing history was made during the Grand Circuit meeting of 28 August 1897 at Readville when pacer Star Pointer became the first horse to break the two minute barrier for driver David McClary. After warming up poorly, Star Pointer paced the first quarter in 30 seconds, the half in 59¼, the three quarters in 1:29 and at the mile finishing line recorded a 1:59¼ mile.
Star Pointer was not beaten again on a mile track that year, winning races at Boston, Readville, Lexington, a match with Joe Patchen at Philadelphia and at Mystic Park in Boston he established a new three heat record of 2:02½, 2:03¼ and 2:03¾ racing against all the stars of the time except Gentry.
Lou Dillon –
This well-bred chestnut filly whose great-great grandsire was Hambletonian, born near Santa Ynez, California in 1898 was given the name Lou Dillon. Purchased at the Fasig-Tipton Sale in Cleveland in 1903 for $12,500 by C. K. G. Billings.
Accompanied by two running pacemakers, one in front and one behind (legal then but ruled illegal two years later) and driven by Millard Sanders, on 24 August 1903 at Readville, Lou Dillon trotted the mile in T2:00.0 exactly, last quarter in twenty nine seconds to become the first two minute trotter.
Three days after Lou Dillon’s performance the legendary Dan Patch attempted to break two minutes at Readville attracting a crowd of 15,000. Accompanied by two horses the deep muddy track slowed him down and despite driver Myron McHenry’s efforts he recorded a time just of over two minutes, 2:00½.
After 1903 Readville Trotting Park began losing steam when automobile racing was introduced at the track. The younger generation liked the faster action and appearance of the greatest drivers of the day such as Barney Oldfield and Francis Edgar Stanley who together with twin brother Freelan Oscar Stanley, invented and manufactured the Stanley Steamer automobile.
Allen Winter –
The first $50,000 race, Great American Trotting Derby was run at Readville on 25 August 1908. Before a crowd of 20,000 many of the sport’s greatest trotters competed in two heats each of sixteen trotters over 1¼ miles with the first eight finishers in each heat contesting the final. The second heat contained a five year old first starter, Allen Winter, for Indianapolis owner Michael H. Reardon and driver Lon McDonald. Allen Winter finished third in his heat qualifying for the final. Under the handicap condition Allen Winter was required to start from two hundred and fifty feet behind the field in the final heat.
Allen Winter : Great American Trotting Derby final heat (photo). Allen Winter went on to win by five lengths in a time of T2:46.0 taking the $30,000 winners stake. The richest race in history had been won by a five year old maiden trotter.
Readville’s decline and extinction by the late 1920’s was assisted by a crackdown on gambling by the state police with Massachusetts state law not legalising pari-mutuel betting until 1934. The track fell into disrepair with few horses stabled there and the barns destroyed one by one by fire.
Automobile racing continued at Readville until the 1940s. Navy pilots from the nearby Squantum Naval Air Base in Quincy used it to practice “touch and go” landings during WW II. After the war a proposal to build a greyhound track was defeated. The Stop & Shop grocery chain used it for warehousing for a number of years after which it was purchased by a construction company for development. Today the former racetrack site is basically barren with only memories of its historic past remaining.
On 10 October 2007 an historical marker was unveiled on 10 October 2007 at a ceremony commemorating Readville Trotting Park. Hosted by the New England chapter of the U.S. Harness Writers Association with attendees including Boston mayor Thomas Menino, former Massachusetts governor and Canadian ambassador Paul Cellucci, state representative Thomas Calter and many harness fans and local historians. The bronze marker was placed at the entrance to what was once Readville Trotting Park in the Hyde Park section of Boston, located at the intersection of Neponset Valley Parkway and Meadow Road. A chain link fence at the end of Hyde Park Avenue marks the old entrance to the track once graced by a magnificent gate replete with Corinthian columns (see earlier photo).
Riverside Park/Beacon Trotting Park
Located on the same site in Boston but going under differing names throughout its harness racing lifespan.
Riverside Park –
Riverside Park in Agawam was a gathering spot for fun as far back as the late 19th century when it was known as Riverside Grove (and Gallup’s Grove before that). The first trotting track in Boston and one of the pioneer tracks in New England was the half mile Riverside Park which operated under that name from 1864 – 1870. Bordering Cambridge St and the Charles River and one of two trotting tracks in Allston, the other being the Charles River Speedway.
The Charles River Reservation included a riverside promenade, a mile long harness racecourse and two mile long bicycle track. In 1899 the Charles River Speedway buildings providing space for administration, housing, storage, horse stables and a cow barn were built.
In the 1920’s the open sheds and stables were enclosed, the two storey stable building was converted into a police station and dormitory while a nine bay garage was added as part of the transition from horsepower to automobile. In the 1950s the racetrack was replaced with Soldiers Field Road as cars fully replaced horses.
A public house near to these early racetracks offered patrons overnight accommodation and opportunities for drinking, gambling and other “diversions.” Riverside Park’s public house was the Riverside Hotel situated at the northwest corner of Cambridge and North Harvard Streets. Its earliest manager Samuel Emerson, possibly also initial owner of the park, was a leading figure in the early history of New England trotting parks having previously managed Saugus’ Franklin Park.
Riverside Trotting Park was close to Boston and reached by three routes chiefly i) private horse drawn carriages used the Brighton Road (Commonwealth and Brighton Avenues) and Cambridge Street to the park entrance ii) those without private conveyances public transportation was available a) more affluent utilized the Boston & Albany Railroad, boarding trains at the downtown depot on Beach Street for the twenty minute ride to the Allston Depot a quarter mile south of the park’s entrance b) less affluent used the much slower but less expensive horse cars that ran from Bowdoin Square in the West End over the West Boston Bridge into Cambridge and then over the Cambridge Street Bridge into Allston.
The first public trainer located at Riverside Park was J. J. “Uncle Jock” Bowen, a renowned figure in the history of American harness racing. A twenty mile endurance race to beat a one hour time limit was run in 1865 at Riverside Park where “Uncle Jock’s” horse Captain McGowan accomplished this feat in a time of 56 minutes 25 seconds unmatched for decades. An estimated five to six thousand spectators witnessed this feat which yielded Captain McGowan’s owners stakes of $5,500.
On 30 June 1867 for the first time a world trotting mile record was set on a half mile track at Riverside Park when Dexter lowered Flora Temple’s mark by three quarters of a second to T2:19.0US.
Sold in 1869 for $39,000 to John A Sawyer, a real estate speculator and horse racing enthusiast who wanted to enlarge the track into a mile long course but required the approval of the town of Brighton. Local attorneys William Wirt Warren, the town’s leading political figure and Edward Dexter Sohier, a great Boston criminal lawyer were hired by opponents of the enlarged track to represent them at a public hearing held before the Brighton Board of Selectmen on 5 and 7 January 1870.
Eight adjacent landowners spoke in favour of Sawyer’s plan believing that the expansion of the park would increase the value of their properties. The opponents responded on 7 January with Warren noting that “the names of the men signing the remonstrance represented about a million and a half of taxable real estate in the town, or about one-fourth of the total taxable valuation,” while the eight landowners who had testified in favour of the proposal owned property valued at only $300,000. Warren contended that an immense amount of injury would be done Brighton by the proposed expansion. It would “depreciate the value of real estate, and the associations connected with the park would drive away the residents from their valuable estates to other towns, which would deprive the town of a larger amount of taxes than would ever be received from the park.”
Testimony against the park emphasized property depreciation and “social annoyances” with crowds of 10,000 to 12,000 drawn to Brighton on racing days, two State Police detectives testified that “a large number of professional gamblers and pickpockets were in the habit of visiting Riverside” and that “if a mile track were licensed there it would draw a larger attendance of all classes of people than it had previously done. Gambling implements had been seized by them at Riverside” they noted.
Without settling the matter the Selectmen rejected Sawyer’s petition. The town’s businesspeople rallied to Sawyer’s defence. Brighton’s leading horticulturalist William C. Strong, a leading advocate of residential as opposed to commercial development testified before the legislature’s Committee on Towns noting that “the selectmen refused to allow the race course there, but a town meeting was called which included all the roughs of the town, and it required the selectmen to locate the park.” The town meeting approved the expansion of the trotting park by the considerable margin of 149 to 41 votes, showing the power that the town’s commercial interests wielded in the political life of the community.
Beacon Park –
Sawyer converted Riverside Park into a mile long track in 1870, changing the name from Riverside Park to Beacon Park. Costing $50,000 the enhanced facilities included twenty five new carriage stalls for “gentlemen attendees” lodged under lock and key, a new track and new judge’s platform and a grandstand capable of accommodating 2,500 patrons with space underneath for the carriages of less affluent attendees. During the 1880’s, horse cars lined up outside the main gate on race days to transport the many thousands of patrons back to the city.
Sections of the mile track were given names— the portion extending from the judge’s stand to the edge of the Charles River (paralleling Smelt Inlet, the historic boundary between Brighton and Brookline) was called “Brookside”; the portion that ran along the edge of Cambridge Street – “Roadside”; the portion extending from Cambridge Street to the finish line was called “Homestretch.”
Sawyer sold Beacon Park in 1872 for $169,000 to its final owners Eben Jordan and Charles Marsh of the Jordan Marsh Department Store, effectively doubling his investment in three years. For a further two decades Beacon Park continued attracting substantial patronage. Another Brighton Hotel the St. Julien House, on Market and North Beacon Streets, North Brighton, was named in honour of the famous race horse. The Doubletree Hotel stands in one corner of what was Beacon Park which became the scene of many notable harness events including:
- 1874 the “Great Stallion Race” for the championship of the United States was won by the trotter Smuggler
- 24 May 1878 CA Parker (Harvard) won the first American bike race
- 1880 St Julien set a record for a mile of 2:13¼
- September 1882 seven horse stallion race required twenty score ups to get it away in one heat. Edwin Thorne won the $10,000 high wheel trot in straight heats
During Beacon Park’s last decade, Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody) used it to stage his Wild West Show when it came to Boston. The former scout in the Sioux-Cheyenne country of the northern plains started his Wild West Show in 1883, touring the country re-enacting exciting incidents from life on the plains. He quartered his buffalo and horses between performances in the nearby Brighton Stockyards which had just relocated from Brighton Centre to North Brighton.
Beacon Park closed in the early 1890’s when sold by owners Eben Jordan and Charles Marsh to the Boston & Albany Railroad for conversion to a rail freight yard that remains on the site along the Mass Pike. Comprising sixty acres, some of the land was taken for the building of Storrow Drive and the Massachusetts Turnpike but most lies within the appropriately named Beacon Park Freight Yard in Allston named after its earlier inhabitant the Beacon Trotting Park.
More than one hundred years ago, Henry J. Perkins transformed the picnic grove at Beacon Park into an amusement park with the addition of mechanical rides like The Giant Dip, an early roller coaster. The park was shut during the Great Depression but reopened in 1940 by Edward Carroll.
Other early trotting tracks around Boston included the South End Driving Park (1852), Old Cambridge Park in North Cambridge (1857), Franklin Park in Saugus (1857), Combination and Mystic Park in South Medford (1866) – see earlier in this series.
The Dorchester Gentlemen’s Driving Club held field days at Readville until a racing oval was built in 1904 at Franklin Field, just off Blue Hill and Talbot Avenues. Two of Boston’s legendary politicians and mayors, James Michael Curley and John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, grandfather to John F. Kennedy participated in trotting races at Franklin Field Speedway.
The Brookline Country Club which has hosted the U.S. Golf Open golf tournament has its roots in horse racing. The club formed when a group of Boston’s most prominent gentlemen leased a one hundred acre horse farm, Clyde Park, which included a half mile racetrack and a farmhouse once owned by Daniel Webster, US Secretary of State in mid-1800’s.
Next Article : Michigan live tracks
Peter Craig
26 October 2022
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
