I t was 1972 and I was at Roosevelt Raceway in New York as a spectator. It was a Saturday evening and there had to be 10,000 people in the stands. The quality of the horses was the best in the nation. I believe the Open Race (top race) was going for 20,000 which was a lot of money at the time.
By 1973 Off Track Betting parlors were getting very popular. State Lotteries were cranking up. In the Newsday Newspaper there was a cartoon of Roosevelt Raceway with a race going on, and NO ONE in the stands. Fast forward to the 1988, Roosevelt Raceway a top racetrack in the country closed its doors. The proliferation of gambling took a bit out of horse racing.
Quoted in Newday:
Roosevelt peaked in the mid-1960s, but probably still would be going strong if off-track betting hadn't been instituted in 1971,'' Goldstein said.It sapped our audience and hurt our product. By the time baby boomers were of an age to go to the races, they didn't share their parents' passion for trotters.''
