I've started to research some of these ... and God can it be anymore obvious how much better off it would be to have been around 120 years ago.
There was one at Latonia (I believe Turfway Park today) where even three of the local poolrooms got cleaned out for like a combined total of 15K between them.
They ran a steeplechase race at Tampa at just 9 furlongs about 100 years ago - only one horse in the field had ever been schooled for it - and he won by a gigantic margin. His odds started at 8/1 and got pounded. Every other horse in the race fell down. They described it as a giant farcical.
Here's a pretty cool one that happened in 1897.... keep in mind - $30,000 in 1897 is worth like $800,000 today.
Here is a chart of the race ... note the purse was only $300 .. and note the brilliant chart comments...
