The Most Beautiful Horse Racing Track In America Is About To Be Closed Forever
Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago will run its last race late Saturday afternoon. It is the victim of corporate greed. Churchill Downs Inc. the company that bought Arlington Park some years ago has decided to sell the land the track sits on for "development." In the likelihood that the track will be torn down by next spring when the next racing season for Arlington would start, the track did not apply for 2022 racing dates. The track never failed, but the lack of casino games which so many other tracks now use to raise their racing purse values has put Arlington at a competitive disadvantage in attracting more horse to race there. Churchill Downs refused to allow casino games at Arlington because they own a casino in the same general geographic area and said Arlington would be competition to their other property.
In any case , the nicest race track in America has hours to live.
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The Top 10 Horse Racing Tracks In America
- Arlington Park, Illinois. This picturesque turf race course lies in the suburbs of Chicago and is renowned for its natural beauty.
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I'm a big fan of Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I try to get down there once a year to try my luck at the ponies.
I'm sorry this track in Chicago is closing
I was there once in the 1980s and it was quite beautiful. Sorry to see it go.
It's one of the few I haven't been to. Sadly it's the way of the future. We will be left with a few major ractetracks with most people betting online.
Well done John on the article.
A few years ago our local fairground made a long term agreement with a harness racing group in Virginia. Improvements were made to the track and fairgrounds and the harness racing group has a new home. We always had harness racing at the County Fair but now it is several weekends in the fall and they practice most of the year. One little track has a success story.
That is cool.
Like bull fighting or rodeos the public's taste change.
At least when cars wreck only humans get harmed...
There are still a lot of horse racing tracks. As Vic said, a lot of the betting is done online now so the attendance at the tracks has fallen. Many of them have supplemented their income by putting casino games into their facilities, mostly slot machines. Horse racing itself is not in danger of disappearing , but it may become more concentrated.
If degenerate gamblers threw grandmas off the Empire State Building to bet on which one hits the ground first would that make it okay? Horse racing as a spectator sport is dying off because it is a blood sport that abuses animals which fewer people want to attend anymore...
Agreement with Vic should set of alarm bells.
Tracks close because racing is less popular...
I wont argue with you about your opinion of horse racing, although I dont agree with it.
Horse racing was once one of Americas most popular spectator sports, in the first half of the 20th century, but it wasnt objection to horse racing that changed that, it was the new found popularity of professional football and basketball , which were not as popular prior to the 1960's and 70's.
Horse racing is still popular, just not as much as it used to be as a spectator sport.
There are a lot more horses around because of racing than there would be without racing.
John, Vic and Charger agree on something