This is the twenty third of a major series of articles concerning racetracks in the USA. We continue our review of USA racetracks with a look at Indiana’s live harness racing venues.
Indiana did not legalise pari-mutual betting until 1989 and it was 1994 before its first track Hoosier Park opened. Indiana Downs opened in 2002 with both tracks adopting racino style gambling once casinos were legalised in Indiana. Indiana’s two non-fairground tracks alternated split standardbred and thoroughbred meets until 2013 when Indiana Downs (Indiana Grand from 2014) became a thoroughbred only track with Hoosier Park dedicated to standardbreds.
Hoosier Park (HOO)
Harrah’s Hoosier Park Racing and Casino provides world class harness racing action and Caesars Rewards loyalty club benefits. The racino is located at 4500 Dan Patch Circle, Anderson, approximately thirty miles northeast of Indianapolis in Indiana. The current owners and operators are Caesars Entertainment. Harness racing is featured from late March to early December together with casino gaming, restaurants, a gift shop and entertainment. Hoosier Park offers off track betting at three locations in Clarksville, Indianapolis and New Haven plus year round simulcast betting on course.
Prominent local businessman and long-time resident of Anderson, Virgil E. Cook, donated 110 acres of commercial real estate in 1990 to the city for the sole purpose of developing a pari-mutuel racing facility. In 1992 Churchill Downs Incorporated purchased Indiana’s only pari-mutuel license from The Anderson Park Group headed by Louis Carlo with plans to open a racetrack on the land donated by Cook. A contract was signed in February 1994 for the construction of Hoosier Park at a cost of approximately $13 million. The track’s grand opening on 1 September 1994 was before a crowd of 7,633. Two thousand spectators were turned away from the uncompleted facility.
Pacer B K Bentley driven by Gregg Haston was the winner of the first legal betting race held in the State of Indiana. Haston was killed in an automobile accident in 1996 but he is remembered each year with a memorial race and leading driver title in his honour. Hoosier Park began thoroughbred racing in 1995 maintaining a racing monopoly until 2002 when Indiana Downs opened forty miles further afield becoming the second horse racing track in the state. Both tracks claimed half the subsidy that Hoosier Park used to receive which meant they both lost money until the late 2000’s when racinos were established.
The Hoosier Park track is a seven eights mile dirt oval with a 1,255ft straight and when thoroughbred racing was held a six furlong chute was in operation. Minnatoga with jockey Ricky Faul on board won the inaugural thoroughbred race on 1 September 1995 while the inaugural Indiana Derby was run on 7 October 1995 (now held at Indiana Grand Racing and Casino).
In April 2007 Churchill Downs sold Hoosier Park for $8.2 million to Centaur Group. Shortly after legislation was passed permitting slot machines at both Indiana tracks with their conversion to racinos. Hoosier Park Casino opened to the public on 2 June 2008 with total gaming space of 92,000sq ft (8,500 m2). Hoosier Park was legislated to get fifty five percent of the estimated $325 million the 2,000 slots at each of the state’s two tracks were expected to generate annually.
Hoosier Park and Indiana Downs alternated split standardbred and thoroughbred meets until 2013 when Indiana Downs (Indiana Grand from 2014) became a thoroughbred only track with Hoosier Park dedicated to standardbreds. Caesars Entertainment bought Hoosier Park and Indiana Grand from Centaur Holdings in 2018 with Hoosier Park being rebranded as Harrah’s Hoosier Park. Harrahs Hoosier Park Racing and Casino hosts approximately one hundred and sixty days of standardbred racing every year. In 2023 the season runs from 24 March through until 9 December covering 160 live race days. Racing will be conducted on its traditional schedule of Tuesday through Saturday after being tried on a Wednesday through Sunday schedule in 2021 (one Monday date). Specifically racing will occur on Friday/Saturday 24 March/1 April; Wednesday/Saturday 5 April/24 June; Tuesday/Saturday 27 June/28 October and Thursday/Saturday 2 November/9 December.
Feature racing includes the historic Dan Patch Invitational which honours Indiana’s favourite racing son and arguably the greatest ever pacer. Born in Oxford, Indiana in 1896, Dan Patch was one of the greatest harness racing colts the sport has ever seen, never losing a race in his nine year career (nineteen from nineteen and fifty four heats of fifty six) setting fourteen world records in the process. He recorded forty six time trials in under 2:05 with three under two minutes. His fastest official mile time of 1:55¼ set in a time trial at The Red Mile, Lexington on 7 October 1905 stood for thirty three years (Billy Direct 1:55.0TT, 28 September 1938) while his unofficial time of 1:55.0 lasted until Adios Butler’s 1:54.3TT on 4 October 1960.
The inaugural Dan Patch Stakes which commenced in Hoosier Park’s opening season of 1994 became a tradition with many of the sports best competing in it annually. Harness racing’s annual series of twelve championship events, the Breeders Crown were held at Hoosier Park in 2017 and 2020.
Other major stakes races contested at Hoosier Park include :
- The Elevation 2c
- Kentuckiana Stallion Management 2f/2ft
- The Madison County 2yo pacers/trotters (not run 2019/2020)
- The Jenna’s Beachboy 3c
- The Monument Circle 3c
- The Nadia Lobell 3f
- The USS Indianapolis Memorial 3f
- The Carl Erskine 3T
- The Moni Maker – 3ft
- The Crossroads of America 3ft
- The Circle City 3yo pacers/trotters
- The Hoosier Park Pacing Derby OP
- Centaur Trotting Classic OT
The Indiana Sires Stakes are held annually for all age group categories (two, three and open), pacers/trotters, colts and fillies. Many champion North American pacers/trotters have competed at Hoosier Park. Six of them are 1:48 pacers at Hoosier Park including track record holder Bulldog Hanover (1:46.3, 23 September 2022), while the other five have all been race timed in 1:47.2 (track record) : Sweet Lou (aged horse) 8 August 2014; Castle Flight (aged gelding) 31 May 2019; Lather Up (aged horse) 9 August 2019; Little Rocket Man (aged gelding) 14 August 2020; Cattlewash (3yo) 24 October 2020. Fulfulmydestiny (gelding) holds the two year old track of 1:49.2 10 September 2019. Millionaires Pacific Rocket and Hi Ho Silverheels both twice recorded 1:50.0 on the Hoosier Park track. There are numerous Australasian bred pacers that have cracked the 1:50 mark at Hoosier Park. Leading the trotting brigade is aged horse Whata Swan’s T1:50.3 on 28 May 2022 followed by those with mile times of T1:51.1 in Lindy The Great (aged horse) 20 September 2019 and geldings Bridge To Jessee’s 10 August 2019 and Majestic Player A 18 July 2020.
With regards to dining options at Hoosier Park, they are many and varied beginning with the upmarket Homestretch Steakhouse located in The Terrace, an expansive terrace style dining room overlooking the track. The restaurant is wrapped in a wall of windows so that every table provides trackside viewing during meals of chargrilled hand-trimmed steaks, fresh seafood and traditional side dishes in this classic American steakhouse.
Casual dining is featured in the Homestretch Clubhouse where the tiered eatery provides trackside viewing accompanied by a choice of a la carte menu or a buffet offering soups, salads, burgers, sandwiches and entrées including chicken Alfredo, steak and meatloaf. Quick snack venues on offer include Dog n Suds, The Big Deli and Slice Pizzeria.
Indiana State Fairgrounds
The Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Centre first opened in 1892 having now hosted more than one hundred and thirty Indiana State Fairs. Prior to 1892, the first forty Indiana State Fairs were held at rotating sites around the state. The fairgrounds are located at 1202 East 38th Street, Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana. The 2023 State Fair was held oxer eighteen days between 28 July and 20 August with harness racing events on 9 (Grand Circuit) and 16 August (Governors Cup) with additional days racing on 29 August (Elite) and 7 September.
Since 1990 the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Centre has operated as a year-round events centre with many venues having undergone renovations and upgrades. Laid out over 250 acres it is home to more than 1,000,000 square feet of event space. The Indiana State Fair Commission oversees management of the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Centre and the State Fair. The Indiana State Fair Board advises and assists with its planning.
The one mile dirt track surface has been used for automobile racing. In 2019 the State Fair Commission decided to repurpose the one mile clay track into a full-time harness training facility complete with a crushed limestone surface, making it incompatible with motorsports. The work was completed in time for the 2020 fair.
Harness racing, a long-time feature at the Indiana State Fair, will still be possible on the new one mile limestone surface. Elimination of the half mile track located in the infield will make room for more parking spaces on the limestone track, something not possible when the dirt track was wet.
The new surface meant the end of the end of the Hoosier Hundred dirt track race, an annual May event dating back to 1953. The 2019 running of the Hoosier Hundred auto race at the State Fairgrounds was the last to be held at the fairgrounds.
Indicative of the fast nature of the Indiana State Fairgrounds track, numerous North American fastest two, three and open grade pacers and trotters of year recorded their times on this track e.g.
- Two year old pacers – Albert Albert, French Chef, Romeo Hanover, Bullet Hanover,
- Two year old trotters – Royal Prestige, Lusty Song, Bill Gallon
- Three year old pacers – Bret Hanover, Rum Customer
- Three year old trotters – Nevele Pride, Nobel Victory
- Open Pacer – Bret Hanover
- Open Trotter – Nevele Pride (twice), Noble Victory, Stars Pride, Nancy Hanks
In addition, mile records set on the track were recorded by Deal Direct, French Chef, Entrepreneur, Bullet Hanover (two year olds); Her Ladyship (mares); Nevele Pride (trotters and 2yo trotters).
Indiana Downs (IND)
Indiana Downs Race Track is located in Shelbyville, Indiana, situated at the intersection of I – 74 and Fairland Road (exit 109), fifteen miles and roughly fifteen minutes from Indianapolis. The 152 acre horse racing property has a one mile main track (harness; 990ft straight, width of 90ft; starting nine behind mobile gate) and seven furlong turf track (six furlong and mile and a quarter chutes). It was a $35 million dollar state-of-the-art facility that originally hosted both thoroughbred and harness races for the first eleven seasons of its existence (2002 – 2012). Featuring thoroughbred, quarter horse and standardbred racing, the thoroughbreds usually raced from April to May/June with harness racing typically running from June/July to October.
In August 2000, developer Paul Estridge Senior’s proposal to build a standardbred track in Lawrence, Indiana was rejected four to one in a vote by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission who decided Lawrence was too close to Anderson, Indiana where Hoosier Park is located, Indiana’s then sole pari-mutuel track, forty two miles distant. On 30 May 2001 the Indiana Horse Racing Commission voted four to nil granting a license to the Estridge group to build a new track in Shelby County which ended Hoosier Park’s seven years as the only pari-mutuel track in Indiana. The construction of Indianapolis Downs (later renamed Indiana Downs) commenced shortly thereafter.
On 6 December 2002 Indiana Downs opened for harness racing with Crosswind winning the opening event. The inaugural thoroughbred races run in Shelbyville took place on 4 November 2003. General admission and parking for 1,700 vehicles was free with a grandstand capacity for 1,200 and a clubhouse catering for 400 patrons.
Indiana Downs changed to a racino operation on 6 June 2008 with the opening of the Indiana Live Casino. Hoosier Park and Indiana Downs (Indiana’s second horse track) contributed to the development of horse racing across the state alternating harness and thoroughbred dates until 2013 when Indiana Downs (remained Indiana Grand in 2014) became dedicated to thoroughbred racing while Hoosier Park races only standardbreds.
Champion horses that graced the Indiana Downs harness track included 2011 Elevation – 2c winners, millionaires, world record holders and future stallions A Rocknroll Dance and Sweet Lou; dual Indiana Pacing Derby winner, highest ever stakes earner ($7.6m), world record holder, winner of 109 races in Foiled Again; multiple millionaires and Indiana Pacing Derby winners Art Official and Won The West.
Next Article : Delaware part one
Peter Craig
22 March 2023
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
