view raw text
LAST OF FAMOUS SHEEPSHEAD BAY Former Home of the Suburban Handicap and Futurity Cut Up Into Building lots. NEW YORK, N. December 3. Sheepshead Bav. our of the n.cst famous nice tracks in the his-torv of th? .n oriean turf, is now but a part of that glorious historv it helped to make. Demolition of th" peedwav, on which many international automobile races blue been held since 1910. the last year of horse racing there, was begun yesterday. The property will be divided into building lots. The upkeep of the track for only a few events a year hid l-ecii found impracticable. In 1S79 Messrs. Leonard Jerome, John G. Heck-seher and James R. Keene, with others, -effected a temiwrarv organization and held a three-day meeting on Conev Island. This initial meeting was a success, and the outcome of it was that the Coney Island Jockev Club was permanently organized, a mile track was built and the inaugural meeting at Sheepshead Bay began June 19, 1S80. A few years later the track was enlarged to a mile and an eighth and the grounds extensively enlarged and beautified. For over two decades Sheepshead Bay was the most famous of American race courses, with the best horses of each year seen competing for rich and historical stake features decided over it. Had there been no other races run there, save the Suburban and Futurity the position of Sheepshead Bay in the annals of turf history would have been firmly established beyond all cavil. In those days public interest in those two fixtures was second onlv to that absorbing attention displayed in England over the Derby and other classical events. Racing at Sheepshead Bay was abandoned after the year 1910, and some of its famous stake features, such as the Futurity. Suburban Handicap and Lawrence Realization Stakes, were transferred to Belmont Park. It prospered for a while as a speedway for automobile races, but now it has passed on, leaving only a memory of ts former greatness.
