Will Godolphin ever win a Derby??? I think we need Liam Neeson at the Derby, as this could be the plot of \"Taken 4\".
https://amp.kentucky.com/opinion/linda-blackford/article250972469.html
You go down that path and there won\'t be any horse racing.
Is there any chance this lawsuit could actually yield any action?
And there will be Amicus briefs filed on his behalf by every commercial breeder and sale company in Lexington.
0% chance.
you should not be playing horses if you think this goes through.
If they allow Crazy Beautiful to run under the Phoenix Thoroughbreds banner -- they will allow anything.
I wish you had been there to tell me what I shouldn\'t do when I was twelve years old and first walked into an OTB in Staten Island!
On forest ave OTB?
My favorite was the tiny OTB on Water Street near the Methadone clinic. My father
always looked for me in the other OTBs and my wife was afraid of the neighborhood.
The perfect hiding place. And if you wanted to beat the OTB surcharge, like most
OTB\'s, there was a bookie conveniently located nearby on the sidewalk.
When I 1st graduated college I stayed in the small town in Western NY & was always at OTB. I took a job that summer in an ice cream plant & after they laid me off , they would call me up to work a day here & a day there. One day I wasn\'t home & they sent someone to OTB to tell me to go to work. I could run but I couldn\'t hide.
I thought I was in heaven when I discovered the horse book at Atlantic City would take the bus there
Richie, screw the fiction, write that stuff. First line is Springsteenesque, and that is high praise.
I want to say Richmond Avenue? I remember a great pizza place nearby called Gino\'s. I would go with my dad and some of his friends, all WW II Vets--a hardboiled crew to say the least. They mostly went to Monmouth and Jersey tracks, but from that ridiculously young age, I always liked New York racing better. Back then, you could smoke, and the smoke inside was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. People packed in there like maniacs. The bathrooms never worked and smelled god awful. You got these cool little tickets with letters, not numbers! Some tracks, like Monticello and Finger Lakes, just gave you the audio call with no video. Noting better than sitting down at Gino\'s with a nice slice and a racing form--real papers back then, not these little books, handicapping jocks like Jerry Bailey and Angel Cordero. Too many memories! Monmouth Park was always so beautiful and we\'d take my mom and go out to a nice dinner at the beach afterwards, but OTB had the better racing, so you had to endure that place to bet on it, unless you wanted to take the drive east to Aqueduct or Belmont, which I did a lot in my college years. How they don\'t have every Breeder\'s Cup at Belmont is beyond me. Anyway, good luck everyone and good night.
Thank you for reminding me of my teens and 20s Belmont was cool going by ðŸš,
Richie...love it! You brought back some memories! Let\'s just say it wasn\'t the best of neighborhood...the OTB on Hylan Blvd.(think it was in Grant City) wasn\'t bad... If memory serves there was a bar next door called The Tack Room... fitting...
John
Yes I worked at rainbow shop as a security guard across from otb there in mid 90s they had a restaurant but I think it burned down
I\'ve never smoked, but in my late teens & early 20s I\'d hang out at OTB all the time & by the time I got home I must have inhaled the equivalent of 2 packs.
A friend & I coined the phrase \"OTB Face\" because the 1st thing I would have to do was wash my face to remove all the smoke & nicotine in my pores.
I\'m thinking the over/under age of a TG poster is . . . . Joe Biden.
Not that there\'s anything wrong with that. . . .
You guys are just kids.
It started for me when I was 15 at Aqueduct and maybe 40,000 people showed up every Saturday. I would bury myself in the line, pay my $2 and go through the turnstile. Did this for a long time and was finally nabbed a year later by a Pinkerton at the windows, while I was making a $2 bet. He took me to a sub-basement and I got interviewed by the head Pinkerton who told me I had to get out, being unaccompanied by an adult.
What a conversation. First, I told him my true age and explained that if I couldn\'t come to the track, there was nothing else I wanted to do. I told him that I never caused any trouble and reminded him about the riot they had the week before when Manta got taken down for jamming Cathy Honey into the rail (it was a young Pincay riding, in from California....VERY aggressive). I asked him if he banned any of the people who set fires in the grandstand that day.
This guy looked at me across his desk for a long time and then said if I stayed on the 3rd floor and only bet at the last window...past the finish line, I could stay. If they caught me betting anywhere else it was over. I guess you could say I got adopted by the Pinkertons...they all knew me and gave me a pass. And it\'s been going on over 60 years.
Today I have an owner\'s license in a couple of states and can even have breakfast at the track kitchen. It\'s been a dream.
Based on your story I\'m a couple of years older. I was a senior in high school when there was a DQ in the Ladies Handicap, although I never went to the track until I was 18 and some friends & I went to the old Roosevelt Raceway. The 1st time I went to the thoroughbreds, I drove to Elmont, found a parking space about a mile away from the track because parking would significantly dent my bankroll and bet $5 on a 15/1 shot. Here\'s why I bet him-I found a program on the ground & the horse\'s name sounded so familiar I bet him to win. After he wins I found out the program I found was from the day before. The same # in the same race won 2 days in a row & the reason the name sounded familiar was because I had heard it called the day before on the radio by Harvey Pack on \"Pack at the track\" where he would recreate race calls for the races at Aqueduct & Belmont.