Remembering Ak-Sar-Ben

California horse racing has been dealt some rotten news recently (although not unexpected in the least).  With the end of Hollywood Park fast approaching, I have been very nostalgic about the closure of racetracks in America.  I really haven't been around for many of them but feel the sting of loss almost as acutely as those who were there. 

Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg was signing copies of his new book at Horsemen's Park today.  Horsemen's is a tiny five furlong oval in the heart of industrial Omaha.  With only three to six racing days in any given year, it's hardly a hub of champions.  However, I'm proud to call this small yet fun racetrack my home track.  Van Berg is probably best known for training the Classic winners Alysheba and Gate Dancer, but his claim to fame does not end there.  (Gate Dancer actually ran second, but was disqualified to third, in the inaugural running of the Breeders' Cup Classic, held at none other than Hollywood Park.)

Van Berg was leading trainer at famed Ak-Sar-Ben Racetrack a whopping twenty times, including taking home nineteen consecutive titles from 1959 to 1977.  To this day, the veteran horseman laments the end of Ak-Sar-Ben.  He isn't the only one.

Established in 1919, Ak-Sar-Ben was both a racetrack and an arena.  Placed perfectly in midtown Omaha, it hosted events like music concerts, sporting events like hockey, basketball and bull riding, and even a slew of comedians.  That was the arena part of it, which closed in 2002.

The racetrack was a lively place from the get-go.  It started out as a harness track, then after its first year began to phase in Thoroughbred flat racing.  Its only break from racing was during World War II, where racing halted for two years.  Then, when the war ended, racing resumed in 1945 - and kept going, all the way until August 7th, 1995.  Ak-Sar-Ben ended its career with more than 50 years of uninterrupted seasons of live racing.

The importance of Ak-Sar-Ben can not be understated.  In its heyday, which was the mid-80s, it was tenth in the nation in racetrack attendance.  Its popularity attracted some of the biggest names in sports - D. Wayne Lukas, famous for his multiple Classic and Breeders' Cup wins, was leading trainer in 1985.  Riders like Willie Shoemaker and Eddie Arcaro rode races at Ak-Sar-Ben, and Pat Day won his 3,000th race there.  Garrett Gomez rode at Ak-Sar-Ben meets in the late eighties and early nineties.  And as previously mentioned, Jack Van Berg started out at Ak-Sar-Ben and become nationally renowned with Classic champions.

Horses that won races at Ak-Sar-Ben have names that would be familiar to hardened racegoers' ears.  The Omaha Gold Cup was one of the more famous stakes at the track; winners of that race include Wavering Monarch, a grandsire of two Kentucky Derby winners, and Gate Dancer, who won the 1984 Preakness Stakes.  Another horse to win at Ak-Sar-Ben was Holding Pattern, who won races like the Travers Stakes and the Champagne Stakes.  Ak-Sar-Ben's most famous race, though, was the Cornhusker Handicap.  Horses like Black Tie Affair and Star De Naskra ended up taking the prize in their respective years.  Thankfully, the race lives on at Iowa's Prairie Meadows Racetrack.  In 2012, the Cornhusker Handicap was won by Fort Larned, who went on to win the Breeders' Cup Classic at the end of the year.

Triple Crown winner Omaha was buried at Ak-Sar-Ben after his death in 1959.  The champion had made numerous public appearances at the track since 1950.  It was only fitting that Omaha be buried in the city that he owed his name.  I think his remains are there to this day.  It's kind of odd to think that a Triple Crown winner is buried under some building that I drive by often.  History itself lies under my wheels at those moments.

I also have some family ties to the old track.  My great aunt loves to tell her own personal Ak-Sar-Ben stories; her favorite is a small run-in with Willie Shoemaker himself!  She was working as a secretary for an optometrist when the rider stepped in for presumably a check-up.  She will never forget her brush with celebrity!  Her daughter also worked as a hot-walker for several years at Ak-Sar-Ben.

I was only six months old when Ak-Sar-Ben was shut down in August of 1995, after other forms of gambling and the rise of casinos across the river in Iowa started to out-do their operation.  The old days of glory were over.  1998 saw Omaha's answer to the end of Ak-Sar-Ben in the construction of Horsemen's Park, a simulcasting facility for most of the year.  In 2005, Ak-Sar-Ben was completely demolished.  It is now home to a multi-use complex called Aksarben Village. 

It is only natural for me to feel nostalgic for Omaha's glory days of racing.  I've spent nearly two hours of my time now at Ak-Sar-Ben's official website, which highlights the horses and people associated with the track.  I can just imagine the sights and sounds of the old track.  It was, after all, one of the most popular in the country.  It lives on, if only a little bit, in Horsemen's Park.  It is clear that the people of Omaha love horse racing to death, as crowds of people pack into the tiny facility there for the live racing dates.

Horsemen's Park is quite a sight to see, anyway.  Today, along with five Thoroughbred races - including two stakes - they boasted an ostrich race and a camel race.  There is live music, t-shirt tosses, great food and a state-of-the-art simulcasting facility with video of tracks around the country.  It may not be the most professional place in the world, but it is great fun and the people that go have a great time.

But even after nearly two decades of Ak-Sar-Ben being gone, the gaping hole it leaves in its absence is acutely felt.  As Jack Van Berg said, in a quote from this article, “It's terrible.  I never run into anybody in Omaha who isn't sick that they tore Ak-Sar-Ben down."  That feedback and the copious amount of nostalgic information on the track at its website is enough to prove that the track is sorely missed by racegoers, especially those residing in Omaha.  But, like I said, it does live on.  Not only is there Horsemen's Park for Nebraska horse racing, but also Fonner Park in Grand Island and Agricultural Park in Columbus.  They may not be the grand establishments that Ak-Sar-Ben was, but they serve to carry on that legacy.

So even though Hollywood Park will be torn down, the memories of it will live on, as Ak-Sar-Ben has.  Racing history has a way of sticking in the minds of the most dedicated fans.  And when one track dies, another will rise from its ashes to carry on the legacy it left behind.

They enter the stretch for the first time in today's Skunktail Stakes, a six furlong race for three year olds.  #9, Drinkinandthinkin, picked up the win after taking the lead on the far turn.