This is the twenty sixth of a major series of articles concerning racetracks in the USA. We continue our review with an initial look at Pennsylvania’s closed venues from past years.
Pennsylvania’s earliest organized harness races took place at agricultural fairs during the early 1800s. Farmers who trained and used horses to pull carriages took their fastest horses to county fairs to compete in “speed trials.”
When the Pennsylvania legislature passed the Race Horse Industry Reform Act on 22 December 1959 legalising horse racing and pari-mutual betting, race tracks were able to offer live harness racing in the state. Three licenses were granted with two of the tracks beginning operations in 1963, Liberty Bell in northeast Philadelphia and The Meadows in western Pennsylvania, located about twenty five miles outside of Pittsburgh while Pocono Downs in Wilkes-Barrie commenced in 1965. Today Pennsylvania’s three harness racing tracks, The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, Harrah’s Philadelphia Racetrack & Casino and The Meadows Racetrack & Casino, as well as the fair circuit tracks which continue this sporting activity.
Pennsylvania – closed venues
Allentown Fairgrounds
The Allentown Fair originally commenced in 1852 on grounds north of Liberty Street between 5th and 6th Street and was run by members of the non-profit Lehigh County Agricultural Society. At some stage between 1852 and 1888 a one third mile race track and small grandstand were constructed with harness racing proving enormously popular and drawing thousands of spectators. By the mid-1880’s the small race track and associated grandstand had become a major concern with the fair outgrowing its location with a new site required.
In December 1888 three alternatives were presented to the society by a committee chosen to search for an expansion site. The first proposal was to buy additional land adjoining the old fairgrounds thus increasing its area to twenty two acres, the second and third were possible new locations.
The agreed site chosen was thirty seven acres on 17th Street between Chew and Liberty Streets owned by Solomon Gdesemer, S.D. Lehr and Catherine Newhart. The Agricultural Society purchased the site for $19,300 on 4 April 1889 this is now considered the birthdate for the landmark known as Allentown Fairgrounds. An additional fourteen acres lying immediately on the western limits and bordering the developing Greenwood Cemetery were added later.
The old fairgrounds were sold on 1 March 1889 for $3,500 with work beginning immediately to ready the new grounds for the 1889 fair. Many of the structures were transferred from the old grounds and re-erected on the new including Mechanics Hall, Floral Hall, beer stand, all horse, cattle, sheep and swine sheds were transferred from the old site with a row of fifty new horse box stalls added. A 16,000 sq ft new main exhibition hall was erected along Chew Street, offering exhibiting spaces for needlework, fine arts and other displays. The treasurer and his clerks plus a grounds overseer were housed in a two storey frame cottage with eastern and southern porches built on the 17th and Chew Streets corner. Entry/exit gates and turnstiles were located to the north and west of this building.
A new half mile track and grandstand were installed with the half mile track remaining until its final use in 1976. Engineers and contractors “were instructed to build it in accordance with principles and contour recognized as the best by the ablest and most experienced turf men. This resulted in the completion of a half-mile track of oval shape, 50 feet wide on the back stretch and 80 feet on the home stretch, with proper slopes at the turns.” The wooden grandstand catered for 2,500 spectators together with a president’s office, restaurant and dining rooms. A neatly painted six and a half foot fence enclosed the area.
Rain slowed work on the grounds lowering the 1889 fairs attendance and the soggy condition of the track prevented any harness racing. Three weeks after the fair the society decided to hold a special trotting meeting. Horsemen and spectators were impressed with the track and five years after the first race the grandstand was expanded allowing for additional seating at the expense of lower level exhibition space. After twelve years, the original wooden grandstand was replaced with a stand that could seat 7,070 spectators. The grandstand was used by harness racing, auto racing, glitzy Vaudeville productions and the world’s most famous singers, musicians and comedians.
Until the late 1920’s the fairgrounds were totally shaped by the needs of the fair with all its buildings, trees and shrubs, grassy areas and dirt avenues accommodating the one week a year event. The track’s grass infield served as a baseball diamond for important area teams with the hotel on the northeast corner operating all year round but no major enterprise operated inside the fairgrounds’ gates.
The race track was used for the last time in 1976 for harness and motor racing in honour of the nation’s bicentennial (1776). With the grandstand and stage fashioned into a show arena racing did not take place again. In 1985 a fence enclosed the track where audiences sat.
Among those to have won two year old Allentown Fair Stakes were NZ based stallion Bachelor Hanover and trotters Hickory Pride, Hickory Smoke.
Belmont Driving Park, Philadelphia
The Belmont Driving Park just outside Narberth was the premier venue for harness racing and later automobile racing in the Philadelphia area for close on fifty years.
The track was built during the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition on 72 acres along Meeting House Lane, just down the road from Merion Meeting. The property on which it was built sat behind the General Wayne Inn and across Meeting House Lane, sold by William McDowell in 1876 to the Belmont Driving Park Association. The mile oval course of eighty feet width for harness racing was created in 1876 on land where Washington and his troops camped on 13 September 1777 after crossing the Schuylkill on a site called Price’s Field. A half mile track was built inside the larger course in 1890.
A frame grandstand to which an elaborate four storey clubhouse with tower, cupola (small dome like tall structure on top of a building used to provide a lookout) was later added. A second floor porch and two long wide verandas overlooking the track was erected by the Association.
Grand Circuit racing arrived in 1917 with pacers and trotters coming by train from stables in New Hampshire, Kentucky, Ohio and Massachusetts to the Cynwyd rail station. Featured stars at Belmont Driving Park included Star Pointer, Jay Eye See and Maud S.
Newspaper image from Sept., 1914 of the Belmont Driving Park. Image from the Philadelphia Evening Public Leger.
At one time there were three hundred members of the Belmont Driving Club but interest in harness as well as automobile racing and motorcycling declined to such an extent that by the autumn of 1924, the entire property was sold to Martin Maloney and a construction company for $300,000 (a 200% profit for the stockholders) who developed it into 374 building lots in the section called Merion Park. Having paved streets, sidewalks and many fine homes, Merion Park became a substantial residential community where many of its homeowners would never have heard of its harness racing past.
Carlisle Fairground
The Carlisle Fairground was a half mile grass track that hosted the two and three year filly pacers/trotters Hanover Hempt races in the early 1960’s.
Liberty Bell Park (LB)
Liberty Bell Park was located within the Philadelphia city limits northeast of the intersection of Knights and Woodhaven Roads. The site was an amalgamation of several farms and smaller farmlets. Gordon’s Mill Rd, a street off of Knights Road east to the bridge over the Poquessing Creek, was struck from the Philadelphia city plan in 1962 to make way for the racing facility. Gravel Pike, now Byberry Road, extended east to the Poquessing Creek where a small bridge now closed carried the road into Bucks County. Creek Edge Gardens located in the 4300 block of Byberry Road remains one of the last vestiges of the pre 1962 style of home and business in this once pristine area.
Harness racing was held on a five eighths mile oval track with a 600 ft straight. Built at a cost of $12.5m to comfortably handle crowds in excess of 30,000. The opening of its inaugural harness season in June 1963 ushered in pari-mutuel betting in Pennsylvania. Racing under lights, Liberty Bell had a glass enclosed facility accommodating 30,000; several restaurants including Turfside Terrace, Penn Treaty Room buffet while the first floor had numerous betting windows and concession stands plus a two hundred seat cafeteria; grandstand seating for 10,000; clubhouse seated 5,500 including a dining room catering for an additional 750 patrons.
The back straight stables had room for 1,141 horses while Liberty Bell’s 292 acres provided parking for 10,000 vehicles. Early photographs showed the oval and stabling area tucked inside a pristine area of wooded land with a five eighths mile training track located behind the newly built fire restraint barns.
The evening of 8 June 1963 signalled the commencement of harness racing at Liberty Bell. Majesty’s Knight became the first horse to cross the finishing line in a pari-mutual race in Pennsylvania before a “disappointing” crowd of 10,800 fans despite heavy advertising by management. Betting was $476,818, below the breakeven level of $500,000. Louis Effrat writing in the New York Times stated :
“If harness racing with pari-mutuel wagering, presented in Pennsylvania for the first time tonight, is to prove a success, more persons must turn out and bet more money than they did at Liberty Bell Park’s opening night,”
Opening night featured the $20,000 Liberty Bell Pace, split into two divisions after attracting fifteen three year old pacers. The winners were Max Hanover (dr Billy Haughton) and Overtrick (dr John Patterson).
The first season of forty nine race days in 1963 was part of the sports nationwide increase with record attendances up fourteen percent and betting achieving its first billion dollar mark. Liberty Bell quickly joined the ranks of leading east coast harness racing tracks. A record crowd of 22,989 were in attendance on the evening of 4 March 1967. The all-time betting record of $1,616,892 was set during the evening card of 10 April 1971.
Whilst considered a premier harness racing venue track on the east coast Liberty Bell added thoroughbred racing for a few years. Thoroughbred racing was authorised in Pennsylvania in 1968 having no place to race the states three harness tracks came to the rescue of the thoroughbreds. The Meadows and Pocono Downs conducted racing on their existing five eighths mile ovals while Liberty Bell built a one mile oval around the existing harness oval with both tracks using the same home straight. The thoroughbred home straight was 839 ft in length and the track had chutes of six furlongs and one mile and a quarter miles On 31 May 1969 Craig Lynn (jockey Tom DePalo) won the first thoroughbred race at Liberty Bell.
The Pennsylvania Racing Commission determined that each code run at separate tracks with dates not being mixed. Accordingly thoroughbred racing lasted only five years at Liberty Bell while Keystone Race Track ((now Parx Casino and Racing) was built in 1974 for thoroughbreds with Liberty Bell returning exclusively to harness racing. The return to harness racing only was not the success it had been previously with the split racing season overlapping with nearby Brandywine Raceway eventually leading to neither track surviving.
During its tenure, many leading horses and drivers including Billy Haughton and Stanley Dancer competed at Liberty Bell Park. The 3yo Colonial Trot’s initial two years of running was held at Liberty Bell (winners – Nevele Pride, Lindys Pride) while the rich stakes race James P. Clark Memorial Pace, named in honour of founder and first president of the Liberty Bell Racing Association took place throughout the tracks tenure, 1963 – 1984. The initial winner was Henry T Adios, others included Romulus Hanover, Laverne Hanover, Sir Dalrae, Governor Skipper, Direct Scooter with Australasian bred winners including NZers Oreti, millionaire Cardigan Bay and Aussie bred Adaptor among them. The Hanover Stakes with divisions for two and three year’s old pacers/trotters, colts and fillies featured from the mid-1960’s to 1985. A number of NZ/AUS bred pacers broke the two minute mark at Liberty Bell Park.
The final blow for Liberty Bell Park came when Garden State Park situated on the other side of the Ben Franklin Bridge revealed that it would conduct harness racing. Liberty Bell Park closed after its final harness meeting on 18 August 1985, now rebuilt as Philadelphia Mills shopping centre together with other stores such as Dick’s Sporting Goods and Big Lots.
Reading
A half mile track that hosted Grand Circuit racing from 1936 – 1942 and in 1946. Futurity stakes race were held during the period from 1926 (3yo trotters); 1930 (3yo pacers); 1931 (2yo trotters); 1938 (2yo pacers) through 1957.
Suffolk Park
Suffolk Park opened in September 1859 under the supervision of sportsman Jim Kelly. A $1,500 contest between world champion Flora Temple and Princess was funded by Kelly. Flora Temple won easily – first heat in 2:41½, last two heats 2:31.0 and 2:23.0.
A year later Kelly put up $1,000 for Flora Temple in a high two wheel sulky to compete with celebrated Willian Waltermire’s George M Patchen. While Flora Temple was favourite with bettors, George M Patchen (dr Dri Tallman) won the first two mile heat in 4:51½. Tallman drove his horse ahead of the draw gate and accordingly forfeited the second race to Flora Temple.
Two other world trotting champions campaigned at Suffolk Park – Budd Doble made his first appearance behind Dexter when he defeated George M Patchen in July 1866. Goldsmith Maid won a three heat $2,000 match race with American Girl in 1869 recording 2:22.0, 2:23.0 and 2:30.0.
The Suffolk Park track closed in 1890 following a series of management transfers.
Village Farm
The Village Farm track was attached to the Village Farm Stud, Langhorne. As a horse farm it dates back to 1927, most of its buildings are over one hundred years old. The half mile track operated from 1932 until 1950.
The farms operator Gage Ellis was one of the most prominent breeders of standardbreds in North America. One of the original organisers of the US Trotting Association in 1938, a director of The Hambletonian Society and The Trotting Horse Club of America, Ellis died in 1959 in Easton, Maryland aged 52 (1907 – 1959).
Sires that stood at Village Farm included Abbedale, Cardinal Prince and His Majesty. Abbedale purchased from Walter Candler by Village Farm became an outstanding sire of pacers. His six two minute pacers were headed by champion pacing mare Her Ladyship, 1:56¾TT (The Widower, Brookdale, His Honor, His Majesty, Chief Abbedale). His son Hal Dale 2:02¼ was sire of famed stallion Adios and Good Time, winner of 1949 Little Brown Jug among seventy eight victories from one hundred and twelve starts.
Pittsburgh
The one mile Homewood Oval track operated from 1881 to 1892 and thereafter was called Brunots Island. Pittsburgh joined Grand Circuit racing in 1881 with a number of Grand Circuit events held through until 1916.
Top driver WH (Knapsack) McCarthy reined stalwarts such as Little Brown Jug, Sorrel Dan and Bonesetter during his career and was involved in an unfortunate affair during the third heat of a Grand Circuit race at Homewood in 1881. Trotter Bonesetter when in full stride fell to the track dropping dead and hurling McCarthy to the ground.
World record holder and first trotter to break 2:10 Maud S (T2:09¾TT Cleveland 1884; improved to T2:08¾TT at Cleveland in 1885) set an earlier Trotters Mares mile record of T2:10½TT at Pittsburgh on 13 July 1881. Three days later Mattie Hunter recorded a time two seconds slower than Maud S with her fourth and best Mares pacing record of 2:12¾.
In 1883 a FFA pace brought seven of the best “side wheelers” together to race at Homewood. Pacers were gaining in popularity, both as to speed and style, with racing secretaries programming more pacing events for the public’s entertainment. Rich mining and oil men descended on the Pittsburgh track placing $80,000 into the pool prior to the first heat making Richball favourite. He didn’t disappoint defeating mare Buffalo Girl by a neck in the first heat. Buffalo Girl however went onto victory in the following three wire to wire battles with Richball. The opening and closing heats were run in 2:12½, the fastest race times recorded in Homewood Park’s history.
On 11 August 1916 Directum’s 1:59¾TT was equal fastest pacing time of the season, a time shared with Napoleon Direct’s effort set five days later at Columbus Driving Park, Ohio on 16 August.
Mill Park, Pottstown
The Old Mill Park Fairgrounds were located at the west end of Pottstown, an area now known as the Pottstown Centre Shopping Mall at the intersection of Route 100 and Shoemaker Road. Back then there was no Route 100 with Shoemaker Road being a one lane dirt road used by farmers. It ran from King Street to a point near Pottstown Airport.
Originally the one mile dirt track was built in 1875 for harness racing operating as Mill Park Track and Pottstown Driving Park with many important events held including Dan Patch showing here for a race. The track was fine for harness racing but it was not banked properly for automobile and motor cycle racing when introduced at which point harness racing ceased on the Mill Park track.
Pottstown Speedway was a 1.1 mile dirt tri oval track used by cars and motorcycles from 1911 to 1934. The track had a covered grandstand and several sections of bleachers in the home straight now occupied by Weis Markets, Staples and Fashion Bug. The large parking lot was once the infield of the track. The track was eventually closed following a rash of fatal accidents. The Flying Markel motorcycle, a noted trophy winner was manufactured in Pottstown.
Next Article : Pennsylvania part two
Peter Craig
12 April 2023
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
