[ThaWoj]

Another illinois track bites the dust. I grew up going to balmoral park all the time. Maywood too. Crazy that arlington would go before hawthorne

[ThaWoj]

EXACTLY

The place is a palace
The fields have sucked for years though

I cut my teeth there mid 90's

Earlie Fires
Aaron Gryder
Mark Guidry
Wingin Randy Myer

Great track

Dont forget about Rene Douglas. Brutal accident.

[StackinGreen]

Dont forget about Rene Douglas. Brutal accident.

Yeah, that sucked. Don't forget Robby Albarado and Garrett Gomez!

[StackinGreen]

Crazy that arlington would go before hawthorne

That would have been a nutso bet that you could rib people forever more on, unreal.

[littlekona]

EXACTLY

The place is a palace
The fields have sucked for years though

I cut my teeth there mid 90's

Earlie Fires
Aaron Gryder
Mark Guidry
Wingin Randy Myer

Great track

JJ is clueless. It is a beauty track no riff raff just horrible manangemt for gamblers. Its the Wrigly Field of the 90's crap product but people loved to go. Now before the fire and years afterwords it was a great track BUT man did management just tank the place. And remember the HUGE fix on the pic 6 when it held breeders cup

It;s the only track my wife liked to go to she loved the Binnys wine tasting and all the VIP events... dragging her to Maywood or Sprortsman/Hawthorne was an ordeal like no other.

[Bandit]

JJ
You need a life. Get outta Penn - geez go back to Ocala..........lol

[BOA12]

Good riddance

Dead track
Terrible area

Good riddance. Dead track. People of the area disagree, though, I am not one of them. Long live Hawthorne, always my favorite. Still miss Sportsman.

[BOA12]

Another illinois track bites the dust. I grew up going to balmoral park all the time. Maywood too. Crazy that arlington would go before hawthorne

U remember Sunday Night Thoroughbreds at Balmoral after Saturday AP? Lived a stone throw from Maywood '93 and beyond.

[BOA12]

JJ is clueless. It is a beauty track no riff raff just horrible manangemt for gamblers. Its the Wrigly Field of the 90's crap product but people loved to go. Now before the fire and years afterwords it was a great track BUT man did management just tank the place. And remember the HUGE fix on the pic 6 when it held breeders cup

It;s the only track my wife liked to go to she loved the Binnys wine tasting and all the VIP events... dragging her to Maywood or Sprortsman/Hawthorne was an ordeal like no other.

Had big days with my wife at AP. Too many beautiful wandering to bring a wife, however. Like bleachers at wrigley. My first date with the wife was Maywood on a cold December night in '83. She hated the [lace that I loved, very typical.

[littlekona]

Had big days with my wife at AP. Too many beautiful wandering to bring a wife, however. Like bleachers at wrigley. My first date with the wife was Maywood on a cold December night in '83. She hated the [lace that I loved, very typical.

Yea defenitley eye candy city at ARlington have to wear sun glasses. Every signner I ever hit at Hawth or Maywood with her man she would get so nervous with all the rif raff watching. She did like the grandstand at maywood though a bit such a great view of the races

[Brock Landers]

3:00 posts on Friday's in the summer, loved that.

Like I said, early/mid 90's the cards at Arlington were killer.

Used to rush out to Balmoral park to hit the early daily double. Got pretty damn good at hitting those regularly

[jjgold]

Many tracks will be closing next 5 years

[littlekona]

one of my best memories was back in 2004 Million when they took down Powerscourt for the slightest impedement to the fading Detori horse and moved up Kickkin Kris to win and Powerscourt off the board. So I backed into a baseballed tri Detori and Desormeaux paid over 3K. All in the while some Englishman was going crazy pissed he had 5K WP on Powerscourt. Kitten's joy won the secratariat that year too.

[DrunkHorseplayer]

I remember that; Kent Desormeaux saw it happen, crossed the wire second and waved his stick like he had won because he knew he was going to be moved up.

[Bandit]

one of my best memories was back in 2004 Million when they took down Powerscourt for the slightest impedement to the fading Detori horse and moved up Kickkin Kris to win and Powerscourt off the board. So I backed into a baseballed tri Detori and Desormeaux paid over 3K. All in the while some Englishman was going crazy pissed he had 5K WP on Powerscourt. Kitten's joy won the secratariat that year too.

For sure - Thanks for that memory. Great day for me and I see you did well also

I'm going to miss that track and the fun I had.

[Dr. Fager]

Hoss Moderator gets no respect on this board, shameful. Guy just trying to contribute. He's on the right track (pun unintended) though, in the not too distant future only five states will host thoroughbred racing on a regular basis.

[mrpapageorgio]

That will be a big party..
I don't see how or why CD couldn't revive or revamp the track..
Its good news for Hawthorne..

Less of they couldn't, more they don't want to.

CDI owns a majority stake in Rivers Casino which is the highest earning Casino in IL which is 18 miles away. Last year, the state gave all the race tracks the opportunity to build a casino and have sportsbetting. Hawthorne took it up, Arlington didn't. They don't want to cannibalize Rivers.

Rivers is huge very nearby and majority owned by Churchill. Basically they just went with the new location and don't want a nearby competitor. Lots of people would like to see the Bears move out there, but their lease still runs through 2030 and I doubt Chi is letting them out.

IIRC, I thought I heard the lease was only like $6 million/year. They could easily buy that out or just keep making payments.

Question is do the McCaskeys want to venture into that. Any other owner, I would say yes.

[StackinGreen]

Had big days with my wife at AP. Too many beautiful wandering to bring a wife, however. Like bleachers at wrigley. My first date with the wife was Maywood on a cold December night in '83. She hated the [lace that I loved, very typical.

Great stuff BOA12

I was overseas when Storming Home threw Gary Stevens at the last minute and cost my friend the winner in the Million - he emailed me saying, "Did you see that finish at the Million? WTF!". I laughed when I watched the replay because otherwise I'd have cried. That's one thing that hasn't happened to me in terms of a bad beat in sports betting, or racing.

If you can believe it a few years back in probably the worst beat of all time, a guy at Gulfstream has the #9 at 8-1 for the unique pick 6 rainbow ticket in the last leg ... he's storming down the lane for the win and with maybe 25 yards the rider gets tossed ... unreal. I think it was for $500k. Let's see if I can find this.

Yes, here you go. Oh my word.

https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-n...192139244.html

[littlekona]

Great stuff BOA12

I was overseas when Storming Home threw Gary Stevens at the last minute and cost my friend the winner in the Million - he emailed me saying, "Did you see that finish at the Million? WTF!". I laughed when I watched the replay because otherwise I'd have cried. That's one thing that hasn't happened to me in terms of a bad beat in sports betting, or racing.

If you can believe it a few years back in probably the worst beat of all time, a guy at Gulfstream has the #9 at 8-1 for the unique pick 6 rainbow ticket in the last leg ... he's storming down the lane for the win and with maybe 25 yards the rider gets tossed ... unreal. I think it was for $500k. Let's see if I can find this.

Yes, here you go. Oh my word.

https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-n...192139244.html

#2 on list of bad beats was whale jackpot guy who had lone singles on same ticket and race ended in dead heat him having both runners YET since the race was dead heat (2) winners jackpot didnt pay.

[d2bets]

Less of they couldn't, more they don't want to.

CDI owns a majority stake in Rivers Casino which is the highest earning Casino in IL which is 18 miles away. Last year, the state gave all the race tracks the opportunity to build a casino and have sportsbetting. Hawthorne took it up, Arlington didn't. They don't want to cannibalize Rivers.



IIRC, I thought I heard the lease was only like $6 million/year. They could easily buy that out or just keep making payments.

Question is do the McCaskeys want to venture into that. Any other owner, I would say yes.

Are you saying they don't want to because of cost, or some other reason? I don't really know much about it. I know it was actually discussed way back when Halas was around.

I don't know though, I live near there and the traffic would be a nightmare. There's Metra, but the capacity on that is limited and already busy. I'm trying to imagine everyone riding Metra there on a gameday. Would be a complete nightmare, even if we're not still social distancing lol.

[StackinGreen]

#2 on list of bad beats was whale jackpot guy who had lone singles on same ticket and race ended in dead heat him having both runners YET since the race was dead heat (2) winners jackpot didnt pay.

That's amazing, I actually think in total that is far more unlikely than Jaramillo falling off. Dead heats are super rare but more common than a fall that causes you to lose, however you have both runners on live tickets and they both dead heat in that very race ending a pick 6. I have to tell my boys about this one!!! Thanks for that, I would have never dreamed that scenario up, even.

[StackinGreen]

Are you saying they don't want to because of cost, or some other reason? I don't really know much about it. I know it was actually discussed way back when Halas was around.

I don't know though, I live near there and the traffic would be a nightmare. There's Metra, but the capacity on that is limited and already busy. I'm trying to imagine everyone riding Metra there on a gameday. Would be a complete nightmare, even if we're not still social distancing lol.

Similarly, unless you are from the suburbs or live in NW Chicago, Rivers being right by O'Hare (and it's a small place) is horrible for travel and traffic. F Illinois anyway, the place is a hassle. I wonder how Hawthorne is, do they have a good book?

[littlekona]

Similarly, unless you are from the suburbs or live in NW Chicago, Rivers being right by O'Hare (and it's a small place) is horrible for travel and traffic. F Illinois anyway, the place is a hassle. I wonder how Hawthorne is, do they have a good book?

the best casino has worst book William hill...Elgin esp with poker

[ThaWoj]

Amazing how many ppl are from this area. I left 10 years ago tho had to get out of that shit state.

I miss balmoral tho. Had some good times out there. They used to have $1 beer and $1 hot dog nights. They had a buffet on the 3rd floor dining room which was nice. I had my 18th bday party there lol. I remember getting ryan anderson, andy miller, and Dave magees autographed pictures and program one night. Too many cheaters tho. Ryans dad joe was a juicer. Same with Eric ledford. Always had my doubts about brent holland. I think dale the hitman hiteman was my favorite driver. Del and merv chupp were dirty. Got to see big tom race. Also one of the best trotters kadabra. Plesac as well. Anyone remember super night in September? Big big races. Nothing like standing along the rail and beating it with the program. Balmoral started going downhill when all the big name drivers left to go out east to the big m and yonkers and then over to Indiana. Oh I forgot morgan went to Delaware too.

[hehfest]

Did FEMA buy it to put all the dissidents there? Yes, that includes SBR. You fukkers will be sent there to argue and watch football games on the big screen until they wack you.

[Brock Landers]

Amazing how many ppl are from this area. I left 10 years ago tho had to get out of that shit state.

I miss balmoral tho. Had some good times out there. They used to have $1 beer and $1 hot dog nights. They had a buffet on the 3rd floor dining room which was nice. I had my 18th bday party there lol. I remember getting ryan anderson, andy miller, and Dave magees autographed pictures and program one night. Too many cheaters tho. Ryans dad joe was a juicer. Same with Eric ledford. Always had my doubts about brent holland. I think dale the hitman hiteman was my favorite driver. Del and merv chupp were dirty. Got to see big tom race. Also one of the best trotters kadabra. Plesac as well. Anyone remember super night in September? Big big races. Nothing like standing along the rail and beating it with the program. Balmoral started going downhill when all the big name drivers left to go out east to the big m and yonkers and then over to Indiana. Oh I forgot morgan went to Delaware too.

If memory serves, steinbrenner owned Balmoral, or something of that nature.

Truly cut my teeth there

[jjgold]

Chicago a crap place guys other than a few sections of City

Suburbs over priced and high taxes

[floridagolfer]

There ought to be no more than 25 tracks in the country. If that means there's no place for $2,000 claimers, so be it

[BOA12]

Chicago a crap place guys other than a few sections of City

Suburbs over priced and high taxes

As opposed to the crap place U live? U know little or nothing.

[BOA12]

There ought to be no more than 25 tracks in the country. If that means there's no place for $2,000 claimers, so be it

All elites agree.

[winkyyy]

was at their OTB a few times was very nice though...no attendance and a fairly good greasy spoon restaurant..

all the midwest tracks no match for east coast..


Go to Belmont and see what a real racetrack is.


Best Harness track was Roosevelt Raceway. no close 2nd.


The Big Apple shows them how its done

[Pigpen]

was at their OTB a few times was very nice though...no attendance and a fairly good greasy spoon restaurant..

all the midwest tracks no match for east coast..


Go to Belmont and see what a real racetrack is.


Best Harness track was Roosevelt Raceway. no close 2nd.


The Big Apple shows them how its done

I you are ever in the vicinity, try Oaklawn and report back.

[jjgold]

As far as Beauty

Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park, Delmar, Golden Gate a few others top shelf

NY tracks cannot compete with them

[Pigpen]

As far as Beauty

Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park, Delmar, Golden Gate a few others top shelf

NY tracks cannot compete with them

agree, other than Saratoga

[BOA12]

I you are ever in the vicinity, try Oaklawn and report back.

Beautiful track.