This weekend, Tom and I took a trip to California and
Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California was a hub for Hollywood celebrities and a popular entertainment spot.Photo courtesy of arcadiasbest.
visited Pomona Fairplex. There were a ton of rides and fried fair-food, but what I was looking forward to watching the horses that my grandfather trained, run in the races that day.
Horse racing as a sport is old. Historians and archeologists believe it dates back to ancient civilizations in Greece, Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. It was even an event in the Greek Olympics!
There have been different kinds of horse racing developed over the years. The Steeplechase is the race where horses jump over bushes. Harness races look like chariots. However, if you ever hear the phrase “the Sport of Kings”, it’s referring to thoroughbred races. These are the most popular races and the most gambled on. The Kentucky Derby, one of the most famous and popular races in the United States, is a thoroughbred race that was inaugurated in 1875. Back then, horse racing was for the elite classes and they attended these events in their best suits and dresses. This tradition is still carried on into today, and on Kentucky Derby day you can believe there are a lot of large, crazy hats.
Arizona has Turf Paradise, a thoroughbred track that is still in operation today and the closest to Central Arizona. But if you’ve ever driven to or from Southern California to Phoenix or have ever passed through Goodyear on Interstate-10, you may have noticed a large abandoned stadium structure. This was the home of the Phoenix Trotting Park, a racetrack built in 1964. It only ran for two and a half seasons, but was built in a time when Goodyear was not as easily accessible to Phoenix. Floods, heat, and low attendance shut down the park and now its stadium seating stands solemnly overlooking an empty dirt oval.
The abandoned Phoenix Trotting Park found in Goodyear off of the I-10.Photo courtesy ModernPhoenix.net
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