Blasting through the first turn, Clair Has Flair (number 7), Spinning Spell* (number 3), and French Follie (number 8) battle for the lead position. A second later, French Follie was bumped, taking her out of contention for the lead. Spinning Spell* went on to take the grade-A win with Storm Mist (number 5), barely visible, holding on for second place. The Irish import Spinning Spell* had previously raced at Dublin’s Shelbourne Park as well as at the Limerick Greyhound Track.
The post-race routine might first appear to be a strange mess of people and dogs, but it is a remarkably fast and smooth operation. As leadouts remove the stretchvest-type racing jackets from each Greyhound, trainers are standing by, ready to take their respective racers for a cool-down with chilled water.
The Twin River Adoption Program’s kennel houses retired racers just the same as any given racing kennel—a practice commonly seen at adoption kennels throughout the country. To help maintain a sense of security for the retired racers while in their new surroundings, feeding and turnout times are the same as those in the racing kennels. Likewise, males and females are turned out in separate pens to prevent clandestine romances from taking place. Because of the strong working relationship between the RIGOA and the adoption organization, Lincoln Park (Twin River) enjoyed a 100 percent adoption rate.
Rhode Island Greyhound Owners Association vice president Dan Ryan and Lincoln Greyhound Adoption Program director June Bazar, along with June’s nine-year-old retired racer China (China Bay–LI), take in the sunshine at Lincoln’s Saylesville Park as children enjoy playground equipment purchased using a $26,000 grant from the RIGOA.
The biggest recipient of the RIGOA’s benefaction was the Lincoln (Twin River) Greyhound Adoption Program, founded in late 1994. June Bazar, a Greyhound Pets of America volunteer who had started in Greyhound adoption some fifteen years prior, was asked to serve as director for the upstart organization. The RIGOA footed the bill for the construction of a new adoption kennel next to the kennel compound at Lincoln Park. Once the kennel building was finished, the RIGOA purchased stylish black leather furniture for the lobby.
Tailwind Force (number 6) challenges Roar Phantom (number 1, in red) for the lead position in a stunning display of athletic fortitude as the field of Greyhounds races down the front stretch during a grade-B performance. Tailwind Force powered her way to take the win, with Roar Phantom holding on for second place.
CHAPTER 2
By any measure, Greyhound racing in the state of Florida is astonishing, spectacular, audacious… you get the picture. With close to a third of the nation’s Greyhound racetracks located in the Sunshine State—including the world’s oldest, Derby Lane—Florida is a bright spot for racing fans across the country. Its racing history stretches back to 1921. With so many racetracks in the state, it is not surprising that Florida also has numerous adoption organizations for retired Greyhound racers.
Towering high over Gandy Boulevard and 4th Street in St. Petersburg, a long-legged sign points the way to the oldest Greyhound racetrack in the world.
In 1921, just two years after Owen Patrick Smith opened the first Greyhound racetrack, located in Emeryville, California, the sport found its way to Florida with the opening of the Miami Kennel Club in Hialeah. This was one of the first racetracks to regularly run eight Greyhounds in a single race. The kennel club was also the first to host evening races under a row of floodlights. Although somewhat of an experiment at first, evening racing at the Hialeah racetrack proved to be a hit with local patrons, and other racetracks throughout the country soon adopted the practice. They did not, however, adopt Hialeah’s grass racetrack surface, continuing to use sand and dirt instead.
Later, in 1925, the St. Petersburg Kennel Club and the nearby Tampa-based Six Mile Creek Kennel Club opened their respective racetracks. A group of local businessmen had built the St. Petersburg Kennel Club on timberland purchased from T. L. Weaver, an entrepreneur of the lumber trade. It was the first racetrack built by private interests other than those of O. P. Smith or his partner George Heintz. The St. Petersburg Kennel Club celebrated its grand inaugural race on January 3, 1925.
Shortly after the racetrack’s grand opening, its owners ran into financial hardship and were no longer able to make payments on the initial land purchase. Possession of the property, along with its newly built racetrack, reverted back to T. L. Weaver. Instead of selling the racetrack or dismantling it, the lumber entrepreneur kept the facility—an ownership that has remained in the Weaver family ever since.
By 1930, five Greyhound racetracks were operating in Florida, including the Seminole Kennel Club in Jacksonville, the Biscayne Kennel Club in Miami, and the Miami Beach Kennel Club in nearby Miami Beach, along with the racetracks in St. Petersburg and Tampa. None of them was officially sanctioned by the state; nor were the competing Thoroughbred racetracks. To legalize pari-mutuel wagering in the state and thus prevent local sheriffs’ departments from raiding and shutting down the racetracks, operators of both sports teamed up and pushed for a bill, which was signed into law in 1931.
On December 1, 1934, the Hollywood Kennel Club, located just south of Fort Lauderdale, held its grand inaugural race in subfreezing temperatures normally associated with places like North Dakota and Minnesota. A fledgling operation at first, the racetrack had an opening-night wagering handle (the collective amount wagered by patrons) of just under $14,000—a low figure by most standards. By 1940, however, the racetrack would be earning purses several times higher than realized in its founding days.
Less than a year after the inaugural race, on November 4, 1935, a Category One hurricane known as the “Yankee hurricane” made landfall near Miami Beach, causing significant damage to the Hollywood Kennel Club track, as well as to several kennel buildings nearby. At the racetrack, a nearly 100-foot-tall sign collapsed from the wind, roof sections were blown off the grandstand, and several windows were broken. The worst damage was inflicted on the kennel buildings, where some fifty dogs perished in the storm, leaving breeders and trainers heartbroken for years afterward.
World War II brought significant challenges to the sport of Greyhound racing in the Sunshine State; these included gas rationing, the departure of breeders and handlers to either fight in the war overseas or work in essential industries, and a general downturn in gambling, all of which had a strong negative effect on Greyhound racing. The Sarasota Kennel Club simply shut down for the duration of the war. The other Florida-based racetracks, including the St. Petersburg Kennel Club, struggled to stay open during the war. Out of necessity, they found innovative ways to bring patrons to the grandstands. Because of gas rationing, the only realistic means for people to reach the St. Petersburg racetrack was to ride a bus that, unfortunately, stopped a mile away from the facility. As a stopgap solution, racetrack officials rounded up a small fleet of open and covered wagons powered by horses or mules and even a pair of electric carts to transport patrons to and from the bus stop. Other than walking the long distance, these wagons were the only means of transportation to the racetrack. The effort