| TROPICAL PARK RACECOURSE | ||
| The racecourse of Tropical Park was situated in the state of Florida. It was built on a 245 acre site by Bill Dwyer, Frank Bruen and Samuel Bronfman.Its inaugural thoroughbred race meeting was held on Boxing Day 1931 and hosted races for both thoroughbreds and standardbred horses. | ||
| I am grateful to our American Racing correspondent Richard Gauthier for the rare badges shown below. | ||
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When its president, Henry L. Straus, died in a plane crash in 1953 the track was purchased by a gambler Saul Silberman who also owned the Cleveland Browns. The track is renowned for being the first US track to make use of a synthetic surface which it introduced in the 1966-67 season. The photo below shows Yesnow trained by George Stutts, brother of trainer Ben Stutts, winning a 6 furlong race on 20th March 1948. George's wife Brownie is pictured wearing sunglasses.
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In 1971 Saul Silberman died and the track was bought by William L.McKnight, but his thoughts for racing were elsewhere and he closed the track in 1972 in favour of the newly established Calder Race course. Olympia Heights is now built on the land which once witnessed racing at Tropical Park.
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| If you have badges, racecards, pictures of the racecourse or further details about the course, including your memories, then email johnwslusar@gmail.com | ||
