The last race was run June 30 at Suffolk Downs in Revere, Massachusetts the last remaining live thoroughbred racetrack in New England, bringing to an end 84 years of racing. Demolition of the stables began the next day. The track will soon follow.
Suffolk Downs will remain open for year-round simulcasting, but eventually it will be recast as something new, probably as part of a large development by HYM Investment Group. Most likely apartments, condominiums and offices. The 161 acres became far more valuable as potential developable land than it was for racing.
The racetrack was sold to the investment group after it lost the Boston metro casino license to Wynn Resorts in 2014. It continued to offer an abbreviated racing schedule from 2015-2019.
Many of those who were in the stands for the last day of racing spoke about their memories. Rick Capano, 85, told the Boston Globe that he first came to the track 70 years ago. “I won the first time, so that’s what got me going. That’s what actually got me hooked.” He continued to attend races as an adult, something he did several times a week.
Bob Cowan, 81, first entered the park with a $1 bill and won $3,000. “That was a day, man,” he told the Globe. He visited the park for 27 years after he moved to Boston from Jamaica.
Legendary trainer Ned Allard, who trained Mom’s Command, winner of the Triple Crown in 1985, and man regional champions over the decades, came to the track’s closing.
He told Blood Horse “It’s enough to bring a tear to your eye. I started here with George Handy in 1957 and started on my own in 1970 and raced actively here until the mid-90s, so Suffolk has been a very special place for me. I won over 125 stake races here in New England,” He added, “It’s the end of an era, and it’s sad.”
Tammi Piermarini, one of the track’s all-time leading jockeys and the third all-time leading female jockey’s on the continent, attended the last day with her family. “I’m so happy to be here at home with everybody for the final day, but at the same time, it’s so sad that we will never be back here,” she told Blood Horse.
As another winning jockey, Carl Gambardella, observed, “Time marches on. The younger generation just won’t come to the races anymore.”
Anthony Spadea Jr., president of the New England affiliate of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, expressed the sentiments of many: “We’re losing thousands of people who make their living from this sport. There’s been no major interest taken by any politician to help. This industry should have been preserved as part of the landscape, and especially part of the open space in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It would have been nice to get help from the governor and the legislators to get that type of help.”
Sterling Suffolk, which operated Suffolk Downs for many years, wants to stay in the racing business, and hopes to get the approval of the Massachusetts legislature to offer racing at the now defunct Great Barrington Fairgrounds near the New York state line. It needs state approval to offer simulcast and online betting at one location and thoroughbred racing at a different location.
It proposes to get a grant from the Race Horse Development Fund that the state’s casinos pay that is supposed to benefit the horseracing industry—and restore the track at Barrington, which hasn’t been used for more than 20 years. That would require an estimated $15 million to extend the length of the track and renovate the grandstand.
Chip Tuttle, chief operating officer for Sterling Suffolk, told AP News “It doesn’t do the horsemen any good if there’s money building up in that fund and they don’t have any place to run and compete for it.”
Great Barrington works because it’s a more reasonable option than starting from scratch,” said Tuttle. “But it’s not really practical for us to take on the complete refurbishment of that property unless we have a longer term license and the certainty that comes with it.”
Currently the Race Horse Development Fund has $56 million in it.
