Goodbye Bay Meadows
 

The San Mateo city council has approved the plans for Bay Meadows to be demolished and replaced with condos, shops and office space. This historic track will have it's last day of live racing on August 18th (California Fair racing, the last day of the current meet is May 11th) and could be torn down as soon as this September.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmate...ews/ci_9011901


I am VERY sad about this :( Bay Meadows is my home away from home and I'm really going to miss it. The people there are like family to me, I fell in love with this game the first time I went there three years ago. I knew they were going to close the place down but I had hoped that they would continue to get extentions. The end really is near :mad:


If any DerbyTrailers are going to be at Bay Meadows this Saturday, I'm hosting a party at the Clubhouse Patio, come by and grab a beer - I'll be the one in the red Hawaiian print shirt with a DeeTee Stables hat on!

Sorry that this is official DC. Unfortunately, you can take that press release and insert in any number of tracks instead of Bay Meadows and that's what we will be seeing in the next decade.

As sad as it may be for some of the fans that go to these tracks, I think that for the long term success of the sport, this is needed.

Just trying to understand..... do you mean Bay Meadows in particular or that the closing of (some) tracks will ultimately be a good thing for the sport? If so, how?

Bye, Baze Meadows.

I mean that I think the sport can use a lot more closures. I think there are too many tracks and way too many racing days out there. There are too many horses running out there. I think that a consolidated racing calender with less races and less racing days and less places to race would go a long way towards consolidating things and making for an overall better product. A couple of years ago, we had Lost in the Fog, Taste of Paradise, Greg's Gold, and a few other sprinters here in Cali. They had so many opportunities that they never all ended up facing each other in the same race. Or situations like when they run the Arlington Million and the Sword Dancer on the same day for the same class of horses. Three $500k+ preps for the Derby all on the same day. Colonial and Delaware running big money races for 3yo grass horses at the same time. Stupid stuff that doesn't do the sport any good. I think that racing continually shoots itself in the foot and overflooding the market is one of them.

Derby Cat. I can understand your sadness. I grew up in the Bay Area, and spent many a day and evening at BM, too many when I think back. When I should have been in class at college, I found myself sitting in the grandstand at Bay Meadows. Since it's been many years since I've been there, I don't have the same connection to the place that you have. What I see now are small fields, and pretty low quality levels. It seems a far cry from what it once was. Back in the early 80's when I spent most of my time there, the quality of racing was excellent, and field sizes were good. Horses like Wild Again, Truce Maker and John Henry, among others raced there in good graded stakes. I'm not sure when or why it all changed, but the plethora of 5 horse fields is hard to take. It's been several years since I've wagered on a race there. I've never gotten a good answer as to why the field sizes are so small at BM, when they draw from the same pool of horses, trainers and owners as Golden Gate and the Fair Circuit.

I'm sad to see it go, but I won't miss the small field sizes.

*note to self...send DC shirts for new wardrobe...

May Bay Meadows fly with the angels.......

Nicely said.

Thanks Kev, not everyone can dress as well as a stylin' golf pro like yourself :p

I only wear those monkey like clothes to work. Im very much a jeans, t-shirt and flip flops kinda guy.

And Hawaiin shirts?? Come on...those are so out. I got rid of mine like 3 weeks ago.

To those that think Bay Meadows closure is a good thing, perhaps it is better for the game in the long run. Yes, the fields are small and the same horses seem to run every three weeks and they're cr*ppy horses (well, not all of them) but they're horses (and trainers and jockeys) that I know and care about. And it's not like racing in Northern California is going away, we still have Golden Gate Fields and now they'll just have more dates at the Pleasanton track over in the East Bay (dates beyond the fair racing that's held there every summer). A lot of the trainers here have been running horses down in SoCal - Hollendorfer, Moger, Miyadi... and Art Sherman moved everything down there and left his son Steve to cover the northern tracks (and Steve's been doing really well, winning almost 30%). Those of you that know and play the big tracks back east will never understand the love that some of us have for the smaller tracks - look at how we used to get 100+ posts for a Monday night of Mountaineer racing - the big tracks and their money may be good for the financial future of racing but it's the smaller tracks that create and nurture some of the most committed racing fans.

I don't expect everyone to understand my love for a small track, I just wanted to let you know that a place important to horse racing history is closing... and that's really sad.

Sorry Kev, but in my world it's always Aloha Friday :D I'm a firm believer in the Jimmy Buffett lifestyle - drink and don't worry, life is good!

DerbyCat~

I understand completely how you feel. When they shut down Centennial Race Track in Colorado in the early '80's, I went through the same feelings.
Although I was teenager then, the impact of that place not being there anymore, hit me harder years later, when I was older, and could really understand what was lost when they turned the land into condos.
Even today, everytime I drive by where it once stood, I get sad. My parents ran horses there for years, first QH's for a few years (when Wayne Lucas was also there w/QH, lol), then TB's. I grew up there, and like most racetracks, all of the perennial regulars were like one big family.


Here is a very interesting video of its history, for anyone who would be interested. When I look back at all of our win pictures, what strikes me the most is the incredible crowds of people that were always there. Its sad to see such sparse crowds at almost every racetrack now, when once upon a time, it was much different. I am sorry you are losing your track :(


http://player.broadbandvideo.com/Vid...&CheckPayment=

Centennial Race Track was a world class horse racing track in Littleton for more than thirty years. There are very few reminders of the track that remain today, and many area residents don’t even know the track existed. Centennial Race Track: Racing with the River examines the history of the track through the eyes of horse owners, trainers, a jockey, former track employees, and local horse racing fans. This documentary incorporates historical photos, over a dozen interviews, and rare racing footage from the track.

wow no more 4-5 horse fields in every race.......goodnight now.

you must be a hoot at a funeral.

From my perspective, Bay Meadows and No. Cal racing in particular is a cesspool of cheating trainers. These guys get away with daily thievary and the track does zero about it. I have no concern at all about it closing.

...... whats that have to do with a funeral al??

do you care about the guy who wrote the thread?

And I have no concern about your opinion... a**hole





Thank you for posting.