I spent the past week at Bay Meadows, I was there every day they had live racing. I will miss several things about Bay Meadows but like many of you, I won't miss the five horse fields that pay short prices. What I will miss has nothing to do with betting, it has to do with the people and the horses. I have gotten to know trainers, exercise riders, the staff that work there and many of the fans. There are horses that I have been watching run for years now and I'm happy when they and their connections do well. Those of you that go to the bigger tracks might not understand that there is a true sense of family at these smaller tracks and the loss of our "family home" is what hurts. Yes, I understand that Bay Meadows being torn down is perhaps better for the sport of horse racing and will provide more housing in an area that doesn't have enough, but like Vic, I hate it - I absolutely hate it.
There are so many stories I could tell you about the people at Bay Meadows, folks that have spent a lifetime either working or watching races at the track. The local paper did a four part series on the place (
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4) and another Bay Area paper did a great story on an employee who has been working the windows for 63 years (
SF Chronicle) - the people at Bay Meadows are what made it great and that's why so many of us were sad to say goodbye to each other on Sunday. I'm not a horse racing fans just because I like to gamble, I am a fan because of this track - if it weren't for Bay Meadows I never would have fallen in love with this sport.
Vic - Shannon (your TVG camera operator) was sad she didn't get to have you around for the last weekend, she said it wasn't the same without you - you should have seen her tears
