Sad news for the Fonner Park faithful such as myself back in the college days: the ageless Newil Wall has passed on to the great winner's circle in the sky.
Wall spoiled many an exotic for me during those halcyon spring days spent at Central Nebraska's finest gambling and cheap hot wing emporium. Of course, we never really minded because it was Newil. There was always the fact that a jockey in his mid-50s (but looking much worse for the wear) could still saddle up on a random Thursday afternoon and ride in front of 30 or so degenerates. Old punters, stupid college kids, tattooed members of MS-13, they all loved Newil.
I could never really curse the guy for the damage he dealt to my bank account because I would always think of his knees. They had to be shot. Just bone on bone. You don't ride a horse 300 days a year for 30-plus years and come out unscathed. You just don't.
So, like Teddy KGB, I just resigned myself to getting Newiled from time to time. "He beat me. Pay that man his money."
And in an equally sad note, Fonner Park might be just off Newil's pace according to this AP article that--absurdedly--appeared in the Boston Globe in late April.
We'll save the gambling debate for another venue but, as a horse racing fan, the outlook is certainly dire for the sport in Nebraska (the first state in the US to legalize parimutuel wagering):
Horse wagering in Nebraska, from its peak in 1985, has dropped 76.8
percent, according to the Nebraska State Racing Commission.
In 1985, there were 233 racing days in Nebraska, $214.6 million
dollars--that's $418 million in today's dollars--was wagered.
There are now just 103 racing days in Nebraska...
I haven't been to Omaha since Aksarben was demolished, but driving by the old track when I did live there always made me wistful for the Cornhusker Handicap, a race that now takes place in Iowa. (Iowa! Dammit!) Sinatra played there and so did Nirvana and now it's nothing.
Let's hope that in four years Fonner is still kicking around and the Gus Fonner Handicap isn't being run in Kansas. (Kansas! Dammit!)
5 comments:
Spent last weekend with some friends at a lake just outside of Columbus, so we went into town to the track there on the day of the Belmont to throw a little money away on Big Brown (hey, how was I supposed to know the jockey was gonna hold his reigns for half the race?!) Well worth the trip into town, though. I'd have kicked myself had he won and I hadn't taken the opportunity to make a bet of such historical significance. Plus, I got some good people watching in, among the crowd of characters that typically populate your average OTB...so the trip into town wasn't a total waste.
I went to the races at the State Fairgrounds in Lincoln on the night of my bachelor party a couple of years ago. I don't know much about horse racing, so as long as they can stick around they'll still make a little money off of guys like me every so often. But it's always worth every penny to get to drink $5 pitchers and get a little action going. It's still a good time to be at any track when they're running live and in the flesh. Something about watching them come around the final turn and hearing the crowd start to roar is just a group dynamic you don't get anywhere else in the world. It always brings back warm and fuzzy memories of Aksarben for me too.
July 17-20 at Horseman's Park in Omaha has live racing. Better time than the CWS. It's a tragedy there is not live horse racing all summer in Omaha when a shithole like DesMoines has Prarie Meadows where people travel all over from to go there in the summer.
DT--
I've always wanted to hit Columbus. Seems like just the sort of bull ring where crazy and likely illegal things happen.
Sammy--
I haven't made it to Horseman's Park yet either but a college friend of mine was a borderline celebrity there back in the early 00's due to his handicapping prowess. (In fact, his Creighton graduation party was there.)
So you mean to tell me that Nebraska's gambling dollars are walking out the door to a neighboring state?
I usually go over to Bluffs Run for the simulcasts, but I recently found that Horsemans Park is money. I have better luck there and I have no idea why. Let me know if your friend still frequents the place as me and A.Rose are there every Saturday in the summer.
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