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HORSE RACING |
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| baltimore |
This
is one of the easiest sporting tickets for a travelling sports fan to get
– just roll up to the gates and pay your $2 or $3 to get in. Some of
America’s great racecourses hold well over 50,000 but on many regular
race days you’ll be lucky to see a smidgen of this. However, this
shouldn’t put you off – you’ll get to see all classes of people at
the 'track' and gain an appreciation for how American’s race their
horses – which is much different to other places in the world. For
a start, it’s mostly on dirt, there are no bookmakers, and most horse
races are hell-for-leather affairs – speed is of the essence in American
horse races. The
premier racing period in the US is the triple crown series for three year
olds during April and May. The Triple Crown comprises the Kentucky Derby
at Churchill Downs in Kentucky (near Louisville), the Preakness Stakes at
Pimlico in Baltimore, and the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in New York. Each
race draws capacity crowds and creates a carnival like atmosphere in each
of the cities that it is held, with the Kentucky Derby being America’s
answer to Australia’s Melbourne Cup or the UK’s English Derby.
The
other more recent addition to the racing calendar is the Breeders Cup day,
where multi-million dollar races for each age and class are run on the one
day. It is commonly referred to as 'World Series' day for horse racing.
It is usually run in October at a different track every year. The
sometimes forgotten cousin of thoroughbred racing is standardbred or
harness racing. Although the relatively smaller prize money on offer for
trainers bear this out, there is one track in the US where the
prizemoney and the racecourse facility match anything the thoroughbreds
can offer. The Meadowlands in New York (The Big M) is the capital of
harness racing in the world and is a must see for fans of this form of
racing. Other
harness racing tracks are dotted mainly throughout America’s north-east
and Canada. In fact, Harness Racing at the Meadowlands is dominated by
Canadian drivers, trainers and horses. The main Canadian facility for
Harness Racing is at Woodbine in Toronto. |