 Interactive map of Bay Meadows Racetrack | |
| Location | San Mateo, California |
|---|---|
| Date opened | November 13, 1934 |
| Date closed | August 17, 2008 |
| Race type | Thoroughbred |
Bay Meadows was ahorse racingtrack inSan Mateo, California from 1934 until 2008, in theSan Francisco Bay Area in theUnited States.
Built on the site of an old airfield, Bay Meadows Racecourse was the longest continually operatingthoroughbred racetrack inCalifornia—having been founded on November 13, 1934—until its closure on August 17, 2008. The innovative William P. Kyne introducedpari-mutuel wagering, the populardaily double, the first all-enclosed starting gate, thetotalizator board and thephoto-finishcamera at Bay Meadows.[1]
Prior to the track's closure, the Bay Meadows Handicap had been the longest continually run stakes event in California, having been started in 1934.Seabiscuit won this race twice: 1937 and 1938. The track was allowed to remain open duringWorld War II because of its agreement to give 92% of its profits towards the war effort. The track generated more than$4 million for War Relief projects during the war years. Its ability to run during the war accounts for its status as the longest continually operating US racetrack. In 1945, the firstracehorse to be transported by plane, El Lobo, was set down in the parking lot.[citation needed]
In 1948, the eventualHall of Famejockey,Bill Shoemaker, began his career by exercising horses on this track. He won his firststakes race here in 1949.[citation needed]
In 1950 and 1951 the Bay Meadows 150 AAA Indy Car race was run at the track.[citation needed]
In 1954, 1955 and 1956 the track was used forNASCAR. In the 1955 event,Elias Bowie became the first African-American to start a top-levelNASCAR race.
All of the exterior scenes in Stanley Kubrick's 1956 heist movieThe Killing were filmed at Bay Meadows. The track was renamed as Lansdowne for the movie but the Bay Meadows name is visible in at least one early scene.
Bay Meadows' racing season began in August with the San Mateo County Fair portion of the meet, which ran two weeks. This was followed by a short break of a few days and until recently, this break avoided conflict with the first week-and-a-half of theCalifornia State Fair horse race meet. Racing picked up again onLabor Day Weekend (or thereabouts) with the main thoroughbred meet, which was split into two parts—one in the fall, the other in the spring/early summer (Golden Gate Fields' meet took place in the interim in the winter/early spring).[citation needed]
Throughout its history, Bay Meadows has also hostedharness andquarter horse racing meets but due to the low revenue such events generate, they were not run in the final years of the track. At the end, Bay Meadows focused exclusively on thoroughbred racing.Olden Times,Silky Sullivan,Citation,John Henry,Round Table andLost in the Fog have raced here. In 1954,Determine won the Bay Meadows Derby then went to take theKentucky Derby.Wild Again ran at Bay Meadows in 1984 and went on to win theBreeders' Cup Classic. On December 1, 2006, jockeyRussell Baze won the fourth race to passLaffit Pincay, Jr. as the winningest rider ever in thoroughbred horse racing.[citation needed]
There was talk through the 2000s of demolishing Bay Meadows due to plans to build an entirely new racetrack nearDixon, California to replace the San Mateo race track so Bay Meadows remained open on a year-by-year case basis. The Bay Meadows Phase II Specific Plan Amendment was adopted by the city council of the city ofSan Mateo on November 7, 2005.[citation needed] The plan called for 1,250,000 square feet (116,000 m2) ofoffice space, 1,250residential units, 150,000 square feet (14,000 m2) ofretail space, and 15 acres (61,000 m2) ofpublic parks, as well as a rebuiltHillsdaleCaltrain station near the site of the old Bay Meadows Caltrain station.[citation needed]
Bay Meadows had a 1 mile (1.6 km) dirt oval and a seven furlong [0.875 miles (1.408 km)] turf oval. The track had a totalseating capacity of 12,000 and had stabling for 900 horses on site.[citation needed]
After the track failed to acquire a two-year extension of the deadline to replace its dirt oval with an artificial surface for the safety of the horses from theCalifornia Horse Racing Board, it was announced that Bay Meadows intended to close November 4, 2006 immediately following its summer-fall season.[2]
On July 3, 2007, the California Horse Racing Board unanimously voted to approve a one-year exemption for Bay Meadows to continue horse racing in 2008 on its current racing surface. Bay Meadows was open to race for its last Spring Meet, February 6, 2008, to May 11, 2008. From May 14 to August 4, simulcasting occurred in Bay Meadows every open day, with free parking on August 4, free admission on August 11, and both on August 18.[3] There were ten final race dates run in August 2008 for the San Mateo County Fair, with the last official race occurring on August 17, 2008. The last day Bay Meadows was open for simulcasting was on August 18, 2008.
An auction for Bay Meadows paintings occurred from August 23 to 25.[4]
Construction began on a housing and commercial development in September 2008.[4] Criticism from local newspapers and community groups came when, after the demolition of the grandstand and clubhouse, debris waiting to be recycled was left in "unsightly" piles on the site for several months.[5]
Bay Meadows had the following graded stakes events:
And the following important ungraded events.
37°32′36″N122°17′52″W / 37.543361°N 122.297739°W /37.543361; -122.297739