Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

EUGENE LEVEY — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 02:12:08 GMT

I WAS STABLED ON "BLUEBARRY HILL BACK IN 1965...ANYONE REMEMBER THE "HILL"

LET ME KNOW..eugenelevey@hotmail.com

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

JERRY G. KACZMAREK esq. — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 02:50:30 GMT

I was at BOWIE RACE COURSE in 1966 with horse trainer JERRY C. MEYER.First at LAUREL stabled next to the likes of jockey CHRIS ROGERS and HORATIO LURO trainer of the famous NORTHERN DANCER. There was NORTHERN DANCER grazing with HORATIO. We just came from WOODBINE with 30 horses, JERRY was among the top three trainers for the meet.We won our share of races ,PAUL KALLAI was our main rider.I stayed employed by Mr. MEYER for three months abandoning ship for a job with ROBERT J. FRANKEL and one horse named HAMMORTON which BOBBY claimed and we were off to the BIG APPLE. JERRY.g.KACZMAREK@gmail.com

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Bonnie Shuk — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:01:26 GMT

Being the widow of Nick Shuk, the

memories are immense.

Mugs Feldman, wife Sandy in the Publicity office, Charlie Eckman Ann Carter, training Euphoric Belle, Oliver Douglas, We had given Mugs the win picture of his first win on Little Harp, I don't know who ended up with it. Bowie will always take first place in my heart.

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

robtri — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 03:14:10 GMT

I remember fond memories in the late 60's of attending the races at Bowie while I was at the Naval Academy. I remember Rock'em Back, a deep closer son of Carry Back, who was a big fan favorite. I remember some horse, Kummel, who won a mid card race and set a new track record. Of course, the track was frozen! I also remember the cold and the snow and the day they suspended racing after the third race due to a large snowstorm. It is where I always associated the smell of cigar smoke with a race track. And, I also remember a classmate of mine who managed to cash a win ticket on a 17-1 long shot by the name of Salt Mine. I also recall my room mate being in love with a horse called Tomevy who cost him a fortune and never cashed a ticket on. What great memories! Miss the place and also miss Barbara Livingston's last pictures of the old club house proir to it being torn down. Those pics have been removed from the internet for reasons unknown. She has a new web site but refuses to publish those images - what a shame. The only ones extant that I know of...

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Cris — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:39:27 GMT

I used to live about three miles behind the track on a tobacco farm, if you took "the bottom" to get there. The bottom was a dirt back road that had three small homemade board bridges without side rails that was a short cut for workers like Marty Meyer to get to the track.

Marty was married to my Uncle Freddie's sister Haddie. She went to the track everyday. I used to ride my bike through the bottom to the track to watch the horses work in the mornings before school. We had a track that was 1/4 mile oval and Freddie had a 38 Chevy us kids would drive around the track on our farm. Kelso was running and it was a school day so I skipped school, hot wired the car, and used a stick to work the pedals since I was too small to reach them. I drove through the bottom and went to valet parking, I told them to park it. They took me to Marty's office. He let me stay till Kelso ran and then had one of his men drive the car back to the farm. I got a whipping from the old weeping willow tree for that one.

It was a race between the DuPonts, Kelso vs. Mongo a great race down to the wire.

Another great working man's horse Gala Harry ran great at Bowie. Anyone remember Lexington Park aka Trans Am or Wicked Man a wonderful one eyed horse. They both ran years later, but were Maryland reliable racehorses.

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

John M. Toothman, PhD — Mon, 03 May 2010 02:33:44 GMT

Nick Shuk was without a doubt one of the finest jockeys to come out of Maryland. His riding style was a true art form and he deserves much more credit for his achievements than he received. Delaware Park does not offer the Nick Shuk Memorial Race. However, as Nick's biographer you can read about his life in The Reinsman: The Nick Shuk Story by John M. Toothman,www.amazon.com

Nick is also listed in wikipedia.

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Dan Perlsweig — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:20:35 GMT

I enjoyed reading your column about Bowie. Not too many people remember when they raced there. On Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1952, I rode, in a snowstorm, the longest price winner in Maryland that year. The name of the horse was Towncastle. He paid $273.80.

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Charlene — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:41:42 GMT

I remember Bowie in the winter in the 80's. Didn't a filly beat the boys in the Campbell one year in the 80's? What jockey and trainer won the final meet?

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

clocker — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:15:17 GMT

"Pioneer?" Hardly. There were mercernary tracks like Guttenburg and Gloucester in NJ and several Chicago tracks that ran in December and January in the 1890s. In fact, that outlaw circuit ran nearly year 'round.

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Paul Berube — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:49:25 GMT

The years I worked at Bowie 73-78 were among the best I spent at the race track. People were the heart and soul of the place starting with my sadly departed friend-Al Karwacki- the three stewards- Fred Colwill, Merrill MacNeil and Melvin Mackin. They treated me so well day in and day out. Others with whom I interacted daily included the Maryland commission executive secretary- Jim Callahan. the steward's secretary Kitty Moon who always gave her ethnic background as Persian, Ray Kennedy the AMtote manager, Bob Hancock the mutuel manager and my own secretary Virginia Scagliarini who knew everything that was going on around the track.Bowie wasn't fancy but it was a true racing place that inspired great loyalty and even better memories.

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

drew mollica — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:56:49 GMT

growing up in NY Bowie was featured on sat. afternoons in the winter on local channel nine with frank wright!

Wow what memories from a game I used to love. Passmore rode lots of winners and the game was fun. Now a sorry state of affairs make old racetrackers like me yearn for the good old days! I want to say I bet five bucks on Sip Sip Sip one cold saturday and cashed a good ticket! Great article about a great time and place! Thanks for the memories!

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Angela — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:27:48 GMT

I love this blog! It is so much like listening to my grand-dad and his friends when they got together...remebering great and not so great moments at the track.

Personally, I think the tracks today compared to those of days gone by, leave more than a little to be desired. Why are they trying to make them like DisneyLand or Las Vegas?

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Ray — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:54:46 GMT

The article was great and so are the comments. There are still lots of us out here who love this game.

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Douglas Amos — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:08:57 GMT

Excellent. Study week in Toronto meant Bowie, W Va @ night, Waterford on the way home. Warner's @ 6:00 a.m. for the Morning Telegraph and then it was racing all day. The Campbell was a a big, big race then. Only low point in the article was the exclusion of the great Clem Florio.

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

John B — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:27:44 GMT

One of my greatest memories of Bowie was sitting at a table next to Jim McKay in the clubhouse dining room watching the last race run on the last day. A friend of mine had a cookie can with 32,000 in cash in it sitting on a chair next to him. After the last race we headed for the parking lot and upon arriving at our cars he remembered he left the cookie can on the chair in the dining room. Running faster then the horse that won the last race he headed back and lo and behold that can was still there. It was his luckiest day at the races.

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

gravesendpark — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:15:03 GMT

Gee- sorry, faulty memory. But Kauai King won the Governor's Gold Cup enroute to the Derby, it was then a major race for 3 year olds, not the Campbell.

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Bill L — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:11:47 GMT

Daring Step, Happy Rabbit and Jameela, Gala Performance, John Campbell Day when they would give away scotch plaid hats, Personality, Hirsch Jacobs coming in from New York, Frank Whiteley, a paddock you couldn't hardly see through, the barns on the other side of the train tracks.....a 17 yo just introduced to racing...Thanks Joe

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Ellpol — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:22:42 GMT

Two of my favorite memories of Bowie. First, one winter I was watching the races on the second floor grandstand TV at the top of the escalator right above the restauarant as I always did and my winning bet got taken down. I was so angry I punched a hole in the wall under the TV that hole was there for the rest of that meet, the next year they covered it over with a piece of plywood and painted it. I can't believe I didn't get thrown out. Today I would be in custody for something like that, in the 1970's they just ignored it. The other memeory is one day I was watching the post parade at the rail and CJ McCarron rode by on the horse Guy a great little alowance and later claiming sprinter he bends down and gets in Guy's face and says "Hi Guy" that just cracked me up and still does today. He was mimicking a commercial popular in that time of a man looking in the mirror at himself shaving saying the same thing. I miss those days of finishing up classes at the Univrersity of Baltimore and getting in my car and driving up route 301 to the track in the pines. The track may be closed but my memories will last as long as I do.

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

RG — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:41:05 GMT

1956 Sailor after polishing off Nashua in Florida and heads to Bowie for the John B and another win. It looked great on TV and was sure sign that spring was coming. Loved the place and was never there.

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Dusty Nathan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:18:41 GMT

To Tony C.

Remember the day at Pimlico that Marion Bender ran off the board with $500,000 to show?

Nick Shuk died young too. Do they still have the Nick Shuk memorial? He really could ride.

Also, Upper Marlboro was fun. Hagerstown still has its track and grandstand all these years later.

-dusty

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Dusty Nathan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:16:11 GMT

Joe,

I was there daily. I remember the last race trifecta on Feb. 14, 1975. Tickets in the jock's room lockers. And, everybody was married to Passmore's daughters. I remember Eric Walsh killed himself. Jesse Davidson was in it. George Cusimano. Every rider at the track - as it was a 12-horse field. Tony Agnello might have been in the race, too.

The strange parking lot. The escalator as you walked into the grandstand. I used to sit in the dining room daily, often with Doc Fielding, the podatrist. With those little one-lane roads, it was easy to get trapped in on bad weather days. Remember which boxer lived down the street? Sugar Ray Leonard.

Thanks for writing this story. It brought back some memories. - dusty

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Treston — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:11:10 GMT

Bowie and Marlboro were my diversions as a new law student to the D.C. area. Does anyone remember a "Silky Sullivan" type closer named Jim Busher?

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Gravesend Park — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:44:12 GMT

Thank you for the wonderful Bowie memories. Since I was raised in the Maryland/DC area, Bowie was to me a glamour track, something I read a lot about and yearned to visit- back when Maryland racing was still in its glory days (the 60's and early 70's.)--Remember pre-Breeders'Cup, the Washington DC International was the race, both Kelso and Northern Dancer were retired to the Chesapeake area, the great Native Dancer stood near Baltimore, and the recently vacated skeleton of the Woodward's Belair Farm - the premier racing stable and home of champions, was not far away. I used to drive to Bowie when I was in high school, a wonderful adventure.

My parents took me to see the John B. Campbell for a coveted birthday present and I routed home a horse who I knew had recently won his prep there- Kauai King. My parents than had to extend that birthday present as we traveled to Pimlico to celebrate our home state's first Derby winner be narrowly victorious in the Preakness!

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

Bellwether — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:12:39 GMT

THE OLD PLANT STILL HAS A HEART BEAT LAST TIME I CHECKED...& MD. RACING TOO...PLEASE...LONG LIVE THE KING!!!...

re: Bowie Days - By Joe Hickey

John T — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:43:15 GMT

It seems just like yesterday when

the John B.Campbell and the Barbara

Fritche were both run at Bowie.In

1966 the mare Tosmah managed to win them both.There was some top class horses won the John B.when it was run at Bowie like the year

Kelso carried 131 pounds

and there were other good winners like Mongo and In Reality.Great story Joe and thanks for the memories.