Bing Crosby, Desi Arnaz And The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club
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In 1937, world-famous recording artist and movie star Bing Crosby (along with some of his Hollywood pals like Jimmy Durante and Pat O'Brien) set out to achieve a horse racing dream they had talked about for many years. They wanted to build a world-class horse race track where they could go wild horse betting all day and get wilder partying all night while enjoying the refreshing climate and cool ocean breezes of San Diego. The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club was born and built.
When the race track opened the next year, Bing Crosby personally met fans at the ticket turnstyles to welcome them. The sleepy little resort village of Del Mar was about to became famous as the home of horse racing, soon to be visited by Hollywood stars, horsemen and horse racing fans from all around the globe.
In August of 1938, the track hosted a $25,000 winner-take-all match race between Charles S. Howard's Seabiscuit and the Binglin Stable's colt, Ligaroti. This was an era when horse racing ranked second in popularity only to Major League Baseball. The race was front page sports section news in all the major newspapers was the first nationwide broadcast of a thoroughbred horse race by NBC radio. Seabiscuit won this important race by a nose before a record crowd and the Del Mar Race Track was "on the map" as one of the most famous race tracks in the world.
Between the years of 1938 and 1942 the Del Mar horse racing track entertained Hollywood personalities and celebrities Mickey Rooney, Desi Arnaz , Lucille Ball, W. C. Fields, Douglas Fairbanks, Paulette Goddard and Ava Gardner. A famous comedian of the day, Joe Frisco, spent a fair amount of time and money in Del Mar. He played on his reputation as the consummate track loser with lines like: "I went to the track Monday but it was closed, so I just shoved the money under the door."
From 1942 to 1944, Del Mar was shut down when the U.S. plunged into World War II. In the early war years it was a training base for the U.S. Marine Corps, then used as a manufacturing site for B-17 bombers. After the surrender of Japan in 1945, President Truman declared August 15 a national holiday and 20,324 patrons attended Del Mar to bet whopping $958,476, a Del Mar record.
After the war, the Santa Fe Railroad offered a "racetrack special" to bring race fans from Los Angeles directly to Del Mar. The special program was a success, bringing streams of spectators, vacationers, race fans and horses to Del Mar. Waiting for and meeting the train at the train station became a tradition for local residents and vacationers alike. The 2009 season, 72 years after Bing took tickets on the first opening day, the race season begins on July 22, extending through September 9.
Article Source: Articlelogy.com
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