This is the fourth of a major series of articles concerning racetracks in the USA. We continue our review of USA racetracks with a further three states in which tracks are now closed :
Tennessee –
Billings Park, Memphis
North Memphis Driving Park was located at 1450 North Thomas Street, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. Constructed in 1901, quickly gaining national prominence as the fastest track on the Grand Circuit. The track conceived by C.K.G. Billings (see later) and Frank Jones, with its design by a specialist in the field in Seth Griffin.
Opening on 21 October 1901 with ten harness racing records broken in its first season, a further seventeen established during the second season with every major pacing and trotting record being set at the park during its short tenure (1901 – 1904). Memphis was dropped from the Grand Circuit roster in 1905 due to the anti-betting legislation passed by the state government. The carriage gateway is the only remaining portion of this once great track.
Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings (17 September 1861 – 6 May 1937) an American industrialist tycoon, philanthropist, art collector, noted horseman, horse breeder and principal investor in the Billings Park race track. An eccentric man, Billings invested much of his time and money promoting the sport of trotting, regarded as a “Grand Marshal” of harness racing (“trotting” or “matinee racing”).
Columbia
A one mile kite track that opened in 1891. Kite tracks had several configurations with the most popular being a “figure 8” with one big loop and one small loop. There were no starting gates years back with horses “scoring” by the judge’s stand for a fair start. With a kite track they scored around the small loop, getting the word “GO” at the cross and racing the mile around the big loop with just one turn.
Columbia was the hometown of Napoleon Direct, the winner of 66 of his 95 starts and sire of champion Billy Direct. Trainer Pop Geers, one of the sports great horsemen also called Columbia home. The Geers Stakes (originally the 3yo pacing division of Hambletonian) is named after him and continues to be run for 2&3yo colts and filly pacers /trotters– renamed Tompkin Geers in 1986 and run at Tioga Downs until COVID struck and if run since held at Meadowlands. In 1891, Direct (Director/Echo) lowered the North American Pacers race mile he set at Nashville from 2:09¼ to 2:09.0 and subsequently to 2:08.0 at Columbia.
Cumberland Park
Before country music and the Ryman Auditorium (Grand Ole Opry and Union Gospel Tabernacle), before the famous Tennessee Walking Horse appeared in the mid-1900s, Tennessee was known as thoroughbred central. During most of the nineteenth century, Tennessee and not Kentucky, was acknowledged as the centre of horse breeding and horse racing in the United States.
Cumberland Park, Nashville was then the most famous race track in Tennessee situated on the site of the current racetrack at the fairgrounds. A road was built to connect several noted stables in Nashville to Cumberland Park. Horse racing put Nashville on the map when Cumberland Park hosted the largest stakes race in the world of horse racing.
The Cumberland Fair and Racing Association sponsored harness racing at Cumberland Park from 1891 through 1894. Running races from 1893-1906 preceded the State Fair of 1906 by which time the Tennessee General Assembly had passed anti-betting laws which impacted on horse racing in Tennessee for several years. Harness racing had prospered at Cumberland Park between 1891 and 1904, then converted to the Fairgrounds.
John R. Gentry twice held the North American/world record for pacing horses set in 1896 (2:00½, Rigby Park, South Portland, Maine, 24 September 1896; earlier 2:01½, Glenn Falls, New York, 10 September 1896 equal with Robert J, 14 September 1894). Retiring in 1900 he was buried in the infield of the fairgrounds racetrack with over one hundred people attending his funeral.
Nashville Fairgrounds
The Tennessee Fairgrounds at Nashville dates back to before there was a state of Tennessee or a city of Nashville. The 640 acres of land being the largest and last portion of land belonging to Captain John Rains while the land was originally inhabited by Native Americans. John Rains was given the land as a reward for his service during the Revolutionary War. Rains is credited with bringing the first herds of cattle and horses to the region with his herds grazing on what is now The Fairgrounds along Brown’s Creek.
The track first featured “horseless carriages” and motorcycles on 11 June 1904 on a 1 1⁄8 mile (1.8 km) dirt oval. Races were cancelled after a motorcycle ran into the back of a car that was lining up. Harness racing events were also held at the track formally commencing in 1906 and running until 1958 on a reported one mile track. Harness racing co-existed with dirt track auto racing at The Fairgrounds until the late 1950’s.
In September 1904 automobile racing commenced at the Fairgrounds. Most of the entrants came directly to Nashville from the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. People marvelled at cars travelling at over 60 miles per hour (97 km/h). Annual events commenced in 1915 to coincide with the state fair. This included drivers from the Indianapolis 500.
When the motorised fraternity decided to build a paved track in 1958, opposition from the harness racing enthusiasts ended when the car racers obtained a ten year lease from the state fair board to build a paved half mile track which shared the front straight with a quarter mile track. On 19 July 1958, the first race was held at the new speedway with races held only on the quarter mile track (except for special events). With the track paved, horse racing ended at the Nashville Fairgrounds.
The only track on which harness racing is contested in Tennessee is at the Lincoln County Fair, Fayetteville where a five day carnival is due to be held 20 – 24 September 2022.
Vermont –
Green Mountain Park
Located in Pownal, Bennington County, Southern Vermont, bordering both Massachusetts and New York, Green Mountain Park’s 144 acres just off Route 7, it was built at a cost of $6 million. Billed as “America’s newest, ultra-modern racetrack” when opened in 1963. Starting as a thoroughbred track it transitioned to harness racing before finally hosting greyhounds, in 1975 it held meetings for all three codes.
The thoroughbred track was 13/16ths of a mile with a 5/8ths mile harness track constructed inside of it. The front and back straights were shared by both tracks. The greyhound track was built inside the front straight of the main track in front of the grandstand. When it opened, Green Mountain Park’s grandstand had a capacity for 7,500 patrons, boasting a rooftop restaurant, with the clubhouse and apron the tracks capacity was 25,000 and parking for approximately 10,000 cars. There were 800 stalls on course and the track width was ninety feet wide including the turns.
Thoroughbred racing started with daytime racing which transitioned to twilight meetings with racing eventually taking place only at night under lights. Harness racing commenced on 4 April 1964. Competition from the established Saratoga Raceway just forty two miles away proved difficult. Green Mountain Park was the first East Coast track to hold Sunday racing in 1968 although this was short-lived when other states allowed Sunday racing. One of Canada and harness racing greatest drivers Herve Filion would attend Sunday meetings endeavouring to sweep the card each week.
On 15 December 1972, Art Rooney’s five sons (Daniel, Arthur, Timothy, Patrick and John) purchased Green Mountain Racetrack for $8.58 million. The family already owned several other racetracks including Yonkers Raceway, Liberty Bell Park and the Palm Beach Kennel Club added the strategically located oval to their portfolio. The Rooney’s made many improvements to the track and facilities but their plans did not bring financial success.
Thoroughbred and standardbred racing was held until 1976 when the thoroughbreds were replaced by greyhounds. A year later harness racing was also discontinued with the track exclusively featuring greyhound racing. In 1977 a Lewiston (Maine) Evening Journal newspaper article reported that the Green Mountain track was losing a lot money and had just ended a “terrible” meet. Tim Rooney was quoted as saying “We lost a substantial amount of money up there and you just can’t continue to throw away good money.”
Eventually the Rooneys sold the track, as did several subsequent owners after them. One transaction’s price was a reported rock-bottom sum of $250,000. The greyhound track built in 1975 was the only thing left operational until the track finally went out of business in 1992 amid pressure from animal rights activists who objected to greyhound racing considering it cruel with the state of Vermont banning the sport in 1995.
In 1995 developer Eric Nelson wanted to bring a casino to the track site, this never happened and since closing as a racetrack the site occasionally hosted live events including a rock concert in 1996 in the Lollapalooza series and 2005 to 2008 antique car show. On 7 May 2004 the 144-acre (0.58 km2) property went on sale on eBay with a listed price of $2.5 million. Bought by Progress Partners Ltd in a $1 million deal with the previous track owner John C. Tiegtens.
In early 2018, mortgage holder Bayview Loan Serving, LLC, of Coral Gables, Fla., filed a lawsuit in Bennington Superior Court Civil Division seeking to foreclose on the former Green Mountain Race Track property. The lawsuit named the current owner, Green Mountain Race Track, LLC, a former track ownership group; two other mortgage holders, and the entities involved with the solar array on the property that was installed in 2013. Bayview, the lending service seeks for foreclosure over the unpaid balance on a mortgage on the 144-acre track site off Route 7 that dates back to 2004. This very loan was modified in August 2009, which added some accumulated interest, after a similar foreclosure complaint that had been also filed by Bayview.
The one-time track that had employed 700 personnel sits derelict among a plethora of crumbling barns and out buildings. Although the racing surface is overgrown and the grandstand (see later) has been vacant for years they still exist remaining a visible memory of the past. Their days are numbered and after the fire which gutted the grandstand building, considered a total loss, on the night of 16/17 September 2020 starting at 10.45pm, this is now a certainty.
Previously some plans proposed for the track included a mix of energy-efficient companies, a farmers’ market facility, and facilities to accommodate large events. The stables and paddocks were removed making way for a working solar farm close to Route 7 farm known as the Southern Vermont Energy Park.
The only tracks on which harness racing is contested in Vermont are :
- the Orleans County Fair, Barton where in 2022 racing is scheduled to take place on 7 September
- the Tunbridge World’s Fair, Tunbridge where racing is set down for 15/16 September 2022
Wisconsin –
Cold Spring Park, Milwaukee
Cold Spring Park is a 67-acre mixed-use park in the heart of Newton, Massachusetts providing year round pleasure to all residents. Today it is part of a densely populated mainly residential area.
Originally part of the unincorporated Town of Wauwatosa, the earliest populations in the area were not human, American Indian, German, or Yankee but rather the majority of first settlers were Hackneys, Saddlebreds and Standardbreds. In its earliest incarnation Cold Spring Park was a race track.
In the mid-1800’s, two large tracts of cleared land were rented for outdoor exhibitions, fairs, and sporting events. The largest and longest-lived of the two was Cold Spring Park, which took its name from a natural spring on the northwest corner of the grounds. Located between 27th Street, 35th Street, West Juneau Avenue and Vliet Street the 60 acre tract was two miles from downtown Milwaukee accessible from two plank roads. A grove of trees stood on the grounds and the whole area was surrounded by a forest.
The track was built on Cold Spring Farm, however the spring failed following the construction of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad tracks nearby. This failure played a role in the sale of the farm lands enabling Cold Spring Park Race Course to be built in 1848 with published references of racing when trotters were said to have run there.
The race tracks covered nearly the entire area that is today’s Cold Spring Park neighbourhood hosting harness racing, carnivals, traveling circuses, baseball games, bicycle races, boxing matches, a failed balloon air wedding and early Wisconsin State Fairs. The second annual fair and exhibition of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society was held here in 1852. For the fair, Cold Spring Park was graded and enclosed with a board fence. The fence followed the perimeter of the race track while the interior was devoted to exhibition tents and cattle pens. The spring and three newly dug wells supplied the animals and visitors with water. Fairgoers were accommodated on benches placed among the trees with their numbers estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000. The fair alternated between sites on today’s Wisconsin Avenue and Cold Spring Park when in Milwaukee, with the fair being held a dozen times at Cold Spring Park before moving to its permanent home in West Allis.
The course site consisted of an initial one mile oval track and another half mile track together with outbuildings, stables and Cold Spring House, a hotel located adjacent to the park which accommodated visitors and drivers before and during races. It was notorious for its gambling, cockfights, courtesans, and dances, together with the track it earned a dubious reputation because of the gambling and prostitution they harboured.
Milwaukee had approximately three hundred owners of trotting rigs, driving clubs were popular in the 1860’s and 1870’s among the gentry with members holding invitational meetings throughout the year. Businessmen who took an interest in the course in its heyday included Jerome I. Case, I.H. Brodhead, John T. Burnham, Henry Bently, Charles Bradley and C.M. Cottrill. Orrin Hickok who developed champion St Julien managed Cold Spring Park for a few years after commencing his career as a driver there in the early 1860’s.
Aside from locals participating in races, nationally known horses drew larger crowds and gamblers to the course. On 6 September 1871, mare Goldsmith Maid, lowered Dexter’s world record by a quarter of a second trotting a mile in 2:17.0 defeating Lucy in a $4,000 match race recording her record time in the second heat. This event was commemorated in a nationally distributed Currier and Ives colour print. Goldsmith Maid raced for ten years from 1867 trotting the standard time (2:30.0) in 234 heats.
The start of the American Civil War (1861 – 65) created a new phase for the race track. The course housed the 2nd Calvary, 30th Infantry and 39th Regiment becoming a training camp for thousands of Wisconsin soldiers. Camp Washburn oversaw the training of the 28th, 34th, 35th, 39th, 43rd, 48th and 51st Wisconsin VI, the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry and the 13th Battery Wisconsin Light Artillery. One of four sites chosen for Civil War military encampments in Milwaukee along with Holton/Reno, Scott and Trowbridge.
At Washburn, the military constructed barracks, a guardhouse, an officers’ quarters, a small hospital, a suttlery (soldier’s store) and auxiliary buildings. Muddy ground forced the 30th Infantry to move to Camp Reno near the lakefront in 1864. Many of the camp structures were destroyed by fire in 1865. Following the end of the civil war in 1865, the Wisconsin Agricultural and Mechanical Association was again operating Cold Spring Park as a racetrack in 1866.
The remains of the barracks, hospital, and other buildings were turned into stables for 125 to 150 horses, housing for trainers and outbuildings for racing supplies. The track remained in operation until 1890 however by 1891 the Cold Spring Race Course was being subdivided into housing lots.
The only tracks on which harness racing will be contested in Wisconsin in 2022 are :
- Iowa County Fair, Mineral Point, 30 July and 5 September
- Walworth County Fair, Elkhorn 3 September
- Richland County Fair, Richland Centre 11 September
- Vernon County Fair, Viroqua 18 September
Next Article : Iowa
Peter Craig
10 August 2022
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
