The shrimp, heavens they're tasty!

[jman5581]

part of a 1999 article from the StL Post Dispatch...

In more modern times, local horse racing flourished on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.

Fairmount Park opened in Collinsville in 1925, and the first running of Fairmount Derby took place the next year. The New York Times even described Haste's victory.

In 1947, Fairmount became the only one-mile racetrack in the world with night lighting. People reportedly came "from Europe and Australia to see the spectacle."

The following year, Fairmount began harness racing and conducted what was said to be the first night harness race over a mile track in the United States.

Betting on the horses became such a popular pastime that a second track, Cahokia Downs, opened in 1954.

But racing's hold gradually declined. Cahokia Downs closed in 1979 and Fairmount announced this year that it will not run harness racing after the current meet winds up on New Year's Eve, ending a 52-year run. Brian Zander, the track's general manager, is putting all his efforts into trying to revive thoroughbred racing in this era of competition from legalized casino gambling, which has siphoned off many of the gambling dollars that Fairmount reaped.