Casino Connection Atlantic City

Sport of Kings

Horse racing in Atlantic City has a long and uneven history

by David G. Schwartz

Atlantic City has always been a resort town, and for much of its history, horse racing has been a popular American diversion. It is only natural that the two should come together, and that racing early on became part of the Atlantic City experience. Still, horse racing has had a checkered history in Atlantic City. In the United States, horse racing enjoyed several periods of popularity. It was initially a favored sport of the Virginia and Maryland gentry in the colonial period, and remained widespread after the nation achieved its independence. Future president Andrew Jackson was an ardent horseman—in 1805 he bet $5,000, then a tremendous sum, on his own horse. In a widely attended Tennessee race, Jackson's horse won. Horse racing had a minor presence in Atlantic City from its earlier years, as amateur racing on the beach—particularly harness racing—was not unknown. But there was no real racetrack, or professional racing, throughout the city's first boom period. Racing declined toward the end of the 19th century, just as Atlantic City's star was rising. The first try at bringing an enclosed racetrack in Atlantic County started in 1885, with the founding of the Atlantic City Turf Organization. It wasn't the best time to build a new track. Throughout the country, tracks were closing in droves in the 1880s and 1890s, as Americans were disgusted with the increasing influence of professional bookmakers, who often fixed races. Still, the Turf Association scraped together the funds to lease a section of land on the city's north side, roughly between Maryland and Virginia Avenues at Mediterranean Avenue. It was to be a mile-long oval track. The Turf Association proceeded with construction on the track, draining and banking the course. But it ran out of funds, and after it defaulted on a load of timber which would have built the grandstand and stables, the association fell apart. The land was auctioned off in 1888, and plans for a racetrack were abandoned. When the state of New Jersey outlawed wagering on horse races in 1893, much of the momentum behind the drive for a racetrack was lost. But wagering on horses was re-legalized a half-century later, and, with the city still in its heyday, plans for a track resumed. Atlantic City—or at least Atlantic County—finally got a racetrack when the "Atlantic City Race Track" opened on July 22, 1946 in Hamilton Township, about 14 miles from Absecon Island. Later to be known as the "Atlantic City Race Course," the track's investors included many celebrities—Frank Sinatra, bandleader Xavier Cugat, Bob Hope, and Sammy Kaye among them. It was one member of the "Golden Triangle" of New Jersey tracks. Monmouth Park and Garden State Park were the other two. The race course's president, John B. Kelly, Sr., was no slouch himself. An Olympic champion rower, Kelly later became a wealthy contractor, and he is memorialized in a statue on Philadelphia's Kelly Drive. He is also famous as the father of screen star Grace Kelly, who later became Princess Grace of Monaco. Kelly helmed the racetrack until it was sold, in 1960, to Philadelphia dentist Dr. Leon Levy. His son, Robert, ran the track into the 1990s, and they shared a reputation as innovators who would try nearly anything to draw racing fans. The track's signature event, the United Nations Handicap, was first run in 1953, and it became, true to its name, an internationally heralded event. In 1990, the event's name was changed to the Caesars International, and it was last run at the ACRC in 1997. In 1999, once again under the U.N. moniker, it moved north to Monmouth Park, where it has remained since. In its glory days, the racetrack drew crowds of over 30,000. But the coming of casino gaming, and the general decline of horse race attendance throughout the nation, spelled trouble for the Atlantic City Race Course. Though it continued to innovate—in 1983 the track broadcast the first full simulcast card ever—attendance dwindled. The Hamilton Mall opened on part of the race course's land in 1987, and soon more people came to the area to shop than to watch races. In 1998, the course sold off the lights of its tote board and drastically contracted its racing season, running live races only four days each year. (The 2006 meet is April 26 and 27; and May 3 and 4.) Though the receipts from the races were paltry, the track could still continue to simulcast races. With a current plan to build an off-track betting parlor on part of the race course's land, the end for the track seems near—the land is supposed to be developed for residential and commercial purposes. But whatever happens, the place of the Atlantic City Race Course in racing's—and the area's—history will not be forgotten.

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