A thousand words

[FGFan]

Originally Posted by OldDog

This is great stuff!

I presume FGFan has seen this. She would love it.

I hope to get to Fair Grounds some day.

I have seen it and I do love it!!! We're having a lot of fun celebrating this fine, old track.

If you get here Old Dog please let me know.

Horse racing here is just about as old as our city, there are actually documents banning horse racing on the streets of New Orleans in the late 1700's, which of course would be the French Quarters and Canal St.
Then in 1838 the Metairie Racetrack,the site of the legendary Lecomte and Lexington marathon races, was built which is now the Metairie Cemetery. Of course as all thing NOLA there is a storied history of how it became a cemetery instead of a race track. Although we are listed as the 3rd oldest racetrack, horse racing is much older here. When the Gentilly course was built they didn't like it and raced in Metairie. So technically we are older than Saratoga, sacrilege I know...
For any of the history buffs here, there are some great old documents and photos of horse racing in NOLA on this site.....
http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/index.php
One of which includes the passage and allowance of other gambling venues being conducted at the racetracks in 1839, slots would have been allowed if they existed at the time.