Secretariat, starring Diane Lane & John Malkovich, opening October 8th, from Walt Disney Pictures; Wither Gulfstream Park Race Track?

Girls and horses?
That's a license to print money.
Always has been, always will be.

Secretariat by William Nack
http://www.hyperionmedianet.com/web/showpage/bookpage.aspx?program_id=3131354&type=lead

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/secretariat/

And featuring the return of Fred Thompson to feature films!

Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKmuvjL2cVw



Secretariat at the 1973 Belmont Stakes, winning by 25 lengths to win the Triple Crown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoFquax2F-k

Amanda "AJ" Michalka - "It's Who You Are" Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kShUvrr7QVU




http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/secretariat/videos/making_of/index.html


Above, the Gulfstream Park street sign for the north-south road from the grandstand to Hallandale Beach Blvd., and the north entrance monument sign on U.S.-1/South Federal Highway.
October 5, 2010 photos by South Beach Hoosier.

I've been thinking about this Secretariat film quite a lot the last few weeks as I walk or drive thru the empty NW parking lot of Gulfstream Park Race Track, not far from my home, which I take as a short-cut when doing errands, grabbing something to eat at one of my usual spots or heading over to the beach, which is less than two miles away.

(Anything to avoid the notorious red-light surveillance camera on north-bound U.S.-1 at Hallandale Beach Blvd., which the HB City Commission installed, supposedly, for safety purposes, but which has turned-out to be nothing but a cash cow for the city's coffers, as well over 95% of all tickets issued thus far are for right turn on red violations, NOT for running the intersection, the purpose cited. Because of local area driver's great reluctance to turn too quickly now, east-bound traffic is often stalled for two or three blocks along U.S.-1, with no alternatives open to you but the race track short-cut.
Despite the public disclosure of the statistics, financial and otherwise -city revenue from citations for the month of July 2010 for that one camera was $119,613.987, of which the overwhelming majority were for right turn on red violations- the HB City Commission doesn't care, and is now expanding the use of red-light cameras. Not for safety purposes, mind you, but strictly to get their hands on more money! It's that simple!)


October 5, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
Looking east at the three Gulfstream Park dorms, and in the distance, on the beach at A1A, the three condos that comprise The Beach Club complex.

As always, I have my trusty camera with me, ever-ready to snap a shot that captures my fancy. But after several years of being back in South Florida, after being so long up in the Chicago and Washington, D.C. areas, having been so geographically close to this race track, being in or near it every single day fro seven years, I almost have come to take it for granted.
Almost.

The same way I became blase walking from my home on Capitol Hill at night during the summer, after I first moved to Washington in 1988, to nearby places you may have heard of.

First past the U.S. Capitol, along the pathways of The National Mall, past the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian, past the Washington Monument and Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 'till I was finally at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Even when it's hot as hell during the summer at night, which is always since there's no Gulfstream breeze, the place is so magnetic, the sense of history so strong and palpable, that it's hard not to get wistful, reflective and philosophical.

For the first few years I lived in the Washington area, it was all so terribly exciting, but eventually, the excitement of the history that is all around me turns into a rather mundane routine, except for when friends and family came to visit and it became alive for me all over again, especially when I was with my adorable nieces, who lived in suburban Maryland.

The everyday existence and hustle -and sheer tension- of living in the Washington, D.C. area really wears you out, so after awhile, once I'd moved across the Potomac to Arlington County (VA), since I wasn't one of those person with a summer house share in Delaware, every so often, when I was free on weekends, I started going with friends down to Charlottesville and other places in Virginia where the sense and pull of America's early history is still both strong and palpable. (Or out thru the hills to West Virgina.)

I've always liked being in places where I couldn't take things for granted, though to be sure, every time I ever walked past The White House on the Pennsylvania Avenue side, so many thousands and thousands of times over those 15 years, I never took THAT view for granted.
Not once.
But I saw plenty of people who did, and I never wanted to be one of those people.

So, all that being said, and knowing that I'm someone who has always been a voracious reader and a person who particularly loves history, and American cultural history at that, one of my biggest disappointments living here in Hallandale Beach has been witnessing the way the current owners of Gulfstream Race Track, MAGNA Entertainment, have allowed some of its history, beauty and majesty to recede.

See a glimpse of what the race track once looked like at:
http://www.cardcow.com/search3.php?substring=gulfstream%20park

October 5, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
Looking south from the NW parking lot towards the grandstand and the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex.

Churchill Downs would never tolerate the way things are routinely done here, and neither would Disney or Universal or any other consumer-oriented attraction that wants visitors to spend money.
I suppose that's precisely why I get so very angry when I see how poorly-maintained parts of the admittedly huge facility are, and how unattractively it presents itself to visitors.

It's almost like the MAGNA people take it for granted that people will come.
But they aren't, are they?

Nope, the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex is far from a success, yet at least some of the reasons for that discomforting reality could hardly be more obvious.

Personally, as I've previously written here, I can't fathom how you could own that place and allow a large Gulfstream Park advertising sign that you have that is visible to busy U.S.-1 traffic to be unlit at night for years, yet they do.
I've shown you photos of that very sign here many times, haven't I, as well as the plant overgrowth that obstructed some of the signage?
It's not a secret, it's common knowledge.

I've often written in this space about my litany of well-founded criticisms of Gulfstream Park, complete with my photos to highlight and buttress my contentions, self-evident facts that have been well-nigh invisible to the very people who actually ought to have been MOST concerned with what customers actually thought about them: MAGNA Entertainment.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Gulfstream%20Park%20Race%20Track%20and%20Casino
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Village%20at%20Gulfstream%20Park

Yet they continue to be blasé and ignore what is right in front of them, seemingly content to have nobody in charge of Quality Control, someone able to whip the place into shape so that consumers find it inviting and interesting and FUN.
It simply isn't ANY FUN at all.
It's the opposite of fun -it repels!

That months-old promise I made here once to discuss some constructive suggestions for improving things at Gulfstream Park will finally be posted soon, along with some helpful aids to hammer those points home.

But I wanted to say now while I could that my genuine hope is that the great success of the Secretariat film will do something -anything!- to shake the MAGNA folks out of their sleepwalking stupor, and realize once and for all that if they aren't in it to win, they need to sell the place to someone who will manage this historic facility with the foresight, intelligence, care and marketing savvy it deserves.
All of those factors are currently MIA.

I'll also have a lot to say soon about the prospects of night racing at Gulfstream Park, too, as I've been sitting on that subject since last year while getting more and more information from reliable sources.

Though I am personally in favor of a racing schedule that includes limited night racing, as usual, the folks at MAGNA are completely f-ing botching this possibility thru their careless words and actions, seemingly oblivious to their need to first communicate openly and honestly with the citizens and communities most directly affected: Hallandale Beach, Aventura, Hollywood and Broward County.
They haven't done that.

Frankly, MAGNA operates like all they need to do to secure the ability to hold night racing is to curry favor with enough Florida State Senators, esp. those from the Panhandle, perhaps thru their favorite lobbyists, and magically, after they snap their fingers, it'll just happen.
NOPE!

For starters, the reality is that are looking at first having to hold lots of public meetings, and they are going to have to completely STOP with the transparent half-truths and lies, and actually level with the citizens who already live near here.
Night racing is NOT something that MAGNA is entitled to have simply for asking for it.

Personally, I'm starting to believe that the best thing for everyone concerned would be for there to be no night racing at Gulfstream Park until after MAGNA sells the race track and associated property to an entity with the financial resources to run it in a creative, first-class manner, so that it really is a FUN place to be.
That is NOT what Gulfstream Park is now.

http://www.gulfstreampark.com/

"Gone were the topless women, and the teens who raced and stumbled across the tops of portable toilets, pelted with beer cans as they went."

Preakness, I barely knew ye.

While this Washington Post article is a little more

pronounced than some of the negative articles I've

been reading the past few months in the Baltimore

Sun on the dismal horse racing scene in Maryland,

it's a bigger part of the overall pattern.

The problem is that the patient is in critical care

and the doctors are running out of options.

Actually, compared to the tangible dynamic energy

and history of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill

Downs in Louisville, a place I love, and the first

race of the Triple Crown -always a huge getaway

weekend before the final end of school for nearly

everyone I knew at IU, due to the short distance

between Louisville and Bloomington and the fact

that SO MANY PEOPLE were from there-

The Preakness at Pimlico during my 15 years

in the Washington, D.C. area was noteworthy for

little more than the fact that the public drunkeness

there was such a neverending and embarrassing

spectacle for all concerned, not least, the State

of Maryland and the parents of the kids who

annually made a menance of themselves.

It was like a 1950's film on juvenile delinquincy

but one not lensed lovingly by Baltimore's own

Barry Levinson, and there in the track infield,

every other kid looked like a future low-life

convict that would prey upon the community,

including the longtime pals from Levinson's

Diner, which I watched again this past week.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083833/

How do you not know where to put the

Charlie Parker album, Beth?

Listening to D.C. and Baltimore media people

go on every year about it, most especially,

hearing The Sports Junkies recount crazy

stories they personally experienced or heard

about, was like hearing a trusted friend go on

and on about an old relationship with someone

whom you never met and for whom there

are no extant photos of.

http://junksweb.com/site/

You try to put it together in your head,

and keep waiting for the part of the story

where you hear what the initial attraction

was, met cute, before it wound up so

horribly, horribly wrong.

But that part never ever comes, it's always

just the seamy underside of the relationship

that gets continually discussed.

That's The Preakness!

Coming soon: discusssing the many, many

problems over at Gulfstream Park Racing

& Casino, complete with lots of photos.

Trust me, there's literally a mountain of stuff

to talk about on that subject, not just the

actual racing or the Village at Gulfstream

angle or...

And that's not just my opinion.

I just happen to be in an unusually-close position

to observe it and share my opinions, which many

people across the country have written to me

about over the two-plus years this blog has

been operating.

One thing is certain, people are tired of being

disappointed by it and the customer service

experience, over and over.

-----------------------------

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/16/AR2009051602390_pf.html

At Troubled Preakness, a Sobering Attendance Drop

By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 17, 2009

BALTIMORE -- The future of Maryland's storied horse racing industry might be a matter of debate, but one thing was clear yesterday at the yearly race that has been the state's biggest sports event for more than a century: The Freakness is gone.

The usually crammed infield at the Preakness Stakes, which earned that nickname because of drunken fighting and other forms of debauchery, was far from full as post time neared. Gone were the topless women, and the teens who raced and stumbled across the tops of portable toilets, pelted with beer cans as they went.

To restore civility to what had become little more than an all-day party, officials at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore banned spectators this year from bringing their own beverages, including beer, onto the infield. The move contributed to a 30 percent drop in attendance, and it drew plenty of complaints.

"I'm here, but I'm not happy," said Chad Jones, 35, a mortgage broker from Baltimore. He was among a smattering of fans on an infield that ordinarily draws 60,000.

Those who stayed home forfeited the chance to see Rachel Alexandra become the first filly to win the Preakness in 85 years, holding off Kentucky Derby victor Mine That Bird by one length and Musket Man by 1/2 lengths.

Rachel Alexandra had drawn all the pre-race attention after her victory in the Kentucky Oaks the day before the Derby, and she did not disappoint yesterday as she led the all-male field for almost the whole race, covering the 1 3/16 miles in 1:55.08.

That so few people turned out to see the race was the latest blow to Pimlico and the Preakness, the second race in the coveted Triple Crown.

Attendance dropped 7.5 percent last year, to 112,222, and it fell yesterday to 77,850, track officials said. A referendum legalizing slot machines in Maryland has produced no money for the state's ailing horse racing industry. And Magna Entertainment, the Canadian conglomerate that owns the Preakness, is in financial straits.

The company filed for bankruptcy in March, saying it would put Pimlico up for auction. It relented only after Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and state lawmakers threatened to seize the track by eminent domain.

O'Malley, on a tour of the stables before post time, repeated his pledge to "do everything we can" to keep the Preakness at Pimlico.

"I look forward to seeing it run for another 134 years," he said in a nod to the Preakness's first race at Pimlico, in 1873.

Tom Chuckas, president of the Maryland Jockey Club, which operates Pimlico, said he expected the ban to cut into ticket sales this year and next. Even so, he said, the infield -- a world away from the dresses and heels, linen suits and fedoras worn by some in the grandstand -- needed to change.

"We're trying to elevate the experience for everybody," he said. "Sometimes a short-term loss turns into a long-term gain."

Beer and black-eyed Susans, the event's signature drink, still could be had. But thousands of racing fans -- and fans of one of Maryland's wildest parties -- could not be consoled by a 16-ounce plastic cup of Budweiser for $3.50.

"We're missing about 30,000 people right now," said Sean Robinson, a track employee who was checking coolers to ensure that no beverages were smuggled in.

In an effort to keep the infield crowd, ZZ Top performed, and a bikini contest was held. An 8-11 a.m. breakfast bash featured $1 drafts of Bud Light.

None of that was enough to bring back Ryan Goff, 24, a Baltimore resident who works in media marketing and started one of many Facebook groups that protested the change. "What's the point of going?" someone wrote on one of the pages. "As if there's some reason to be there other than drinking and partying."

Reached by phone, Goff said, "For them to make this change was ludicrous for a struggling racetrack."

For all the criticism, the new policy also drew some new spectators. Mark Lennon, 30, who works at the University of Baltimore Law School, said he had stayed away from the infield for years because of its rowdy reputation.

"I was hesitant to come," Lennon, of Baltimore, said. "I'd like the day to be about the actual event, which is horses."

Reader comments:

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