Favorite going to scratch???

[trackjohn]

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

[statuette]

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

[toppled]

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.

[hellersorr]

I\'m thinking the over/under age of a TG poster is . . . . Joe Biden.

Not that there\'s anything wrong with that. . . .

[confused]

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.

[toppled]

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.