... Part One of a Three Part Series ...
ALL ROADS LEAD TO NEW YORK
In the early 1940’s New York held the title as the most important venue for thoroughbred horse racing in the country. The racing season began in New York at old Jamaica after Hialeah the Queen of American racetracks, ended its forty-day meeting in sunny south Florida. Every March Jamaica opened its doors to throngs of area racing fans hungry for action. Then Aqueduct would host it’s spring meeting before moving on to Belmont Park. This was the jewel of New York’s racing scene. Everything about it was unique. It’s one- and one-half mile circumference dwarfed all other courses. It was so large that a six and a half furlong straightaway ran directly down the infield of the racetrack. Belmont hosted many of the most important races of the year. All the great horses made their way here. It was the place that champions were crowned. Moving north, Yonkers offered a meeting at Empire City Race Track every July. Then Saratoga took center stage hosting four weeks of racing at the mecca of the sport. There, the elite of the racing world would converge on the town. The Wideners, Vanderbilts and Whitneys made it their August home. After the races, the great Lake Houses would greet the gamblers and high society to world class entertainment. Food prepared by famous chefs brought in by the likes of Meyer Lansky fed the guests. The fabulous restaurants turned their attention to gambling after the dining rooms closed. When night approached, high stakes games of chance became the theme. Money flowed like the champagne that was poured for those who made their way to various gaming tables that the lake houses provided. The short season ended, and it was back to Long Island for the fall racing that saw the great champions vie for Horse of the Year honors.
NEW JERSEY ENTERS THE GAME
1937 was a turning point for horse racing along the east coast. In that year Delaware Park opened for business just outside of Wilmington. The track was the brainchild of William DuPont Jr. A member of Delaware’s most prominent family, he spared no expense in building a first class facility that became an immediate success. With its close proximity to Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, it was a natural to draw racing fans from that densely populated area. New Jersey found itself surrounded by states with horse racing venues. With New York to the north and Delaware on its southern border, the time had come for the state to take action.
In 1939 the state legislature did just that. A bill was passed to legalize pari-mutuel wagering.
Waiting in the wings was a self-made multi-millionaire with a plan that would soon catapult New Jersey horse racing to the forefront of the sport. Eugene Mori was a man of extraordinary vision. He was the son of Italian immigrants who migrated here in the latter nineteenth century. As a young man, he showed the money-making skills that led to his ownership of an automobile sales franchise. Add to that land development successes and movie theatre venues. The elixir for a fortune had been brewed. Mori’s eyes were now fixed on becoming New Jersey’s first racetrack owner. He knew how to get things done and used all his business savvy and political connections to procure the permit to get his racetrack built. Mori bought land in Camden. The location was beyond perfect. Only minutes from the Ben Franklin Bridge, Philadelphia’s large population would have easy access to the track. The problem for Mori was a war that was raging across the world. Building materials were in short supply. He was forced to build his new track as a predominantly wooden structure. This would have major consequences decades later. He had the track ready for business in June of 1942. The foundation of the Golden Triangle of New Jersey horse racing had been laid. He named it Garden State Park. Like everything else Mori touched his racetrack was an immediate success. For the next thirty years the track was to rival any in the sport for both attendance and mutuel handle.
AMORY HASKELL & HIS DREAM TRACK
Amory Haskell can be considered the polar opposite of Gene Mori. While Mori was grinding his way to success, Haskell was to have all the perks of American Royalty. He was born into a wealthy and influential family, a blue blood to the core. He attended the best private schools. He epitomized the Ivy League mold. Princeton University fit him like the tailored suits that he wore. Haskell rose to the top of the business world at the same rate of speed that he did jumping his horses over the hurdles at his majestic estate, Woodland Farms in Red Bank New Jersey. This was Amory Haskell. If Gene Mori was the right man to build a racetrack across from Philadelphia, it makes perfect sense that Amory Haskell was the man to carve out a masterpiece on the Jersey shore.
The war ended in 1945. Haskell put his plan into action. This was not going to be just a racetrack. Mr. Haskell had class and style. This would be his envisioning of what a racetrack should be. He oversaw the construction of the facility to its last detail. The finished product was a track that rivaled any in the sport. He named it Monmouth Park. It would not take long to earn the title “The Resort of Racing”. The second of the Golden Triangle tracks opened on June 22, 1946. For decades to come its meeting would challenge any in the country.
HOLLYWOOD COMES TO NEW JERSEY
If Mori and Haskell were opposites, John Kelly fit somewhere in the middle. Kelly gained a reputation as a sports figure in the early years of the twentieth century. He was a champion in the sport of rowing, an amateur boxer of some repute and excelled at both football and baseball. His rowing skills became quite apparent as he took home no less than three gold medals in the 1920 and 1924 Olympic games. In the mid-twenties he started a brick laying business that grew into a construction empire that made him a very wealthy man. Kelly also had plans on building a racetrack in New Jersey. His eyes were firmly fixed on what was then America’s number one summer destination, Atlantic City. Well, not exactly that. Actually, the track was to occupy land adjacent to the Black Horse Pike some ten miles from the shore resort.
It made perfect sense. Patrons from Kelly’s hometown of Philadelphia could make the trip in less than an hour. Kelly had the one thing that would separate his track from the other two. He was the father of the beautiful movie actress Grace Kelly. That connection gave him access to the Hollywood crowd. Kelly was partnered with three other investors. The list of lesser stockholders in the company included Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra. Exactly one month after Monmouth began its inaugural meeting, Atlantic City welcomed an opening day crowd of 28,000 on July 22,1946. In attendance along with Kelly’s daughter Grace, were both Sinatra and Hope. Hollywood had come to New Jersey. The Golden Triangle was now complete. Three men of vision from completely different backgrounds were about to shake the New York Racing establishment to its core. Next week we will take a look at the ascent of the Golden Triangle to prominence.
