22/07/2025
Today........years ago
July 22, 1946
āAnd theyāre Off !ā
Atlantic City Race Course opened on July 22, 1946, as the Atlantic City Race Track, the work of a group of four individuals. The most famous of the group was John B. Kelly Sr., who created the race course together with Fred C. Scholler, Glendon Robertson and James "Sonny" Fraser.
Shareholders included show business personalities Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Harry James, Sammy Kaye and Xavier Judi V. Cugat
Kelso, considered to be among the best racehorses of the twentieth century, made his two-year-old debut on September 4, 1959 at ACRC, at that time one of the country's premier tracks.
Atlantic City and the race course where sometimes referred to as "Hollywood by the Sea."
There were ā at times ā casino dancers working as hotwalkers on the backside, and on the frontside, all manner of celebrities ate, drank, socialized, and gambled. It was a different kind of place in a different time.
Atlantic City Race Course, located only a few miles from the New Jersey shore town that bears the same name, lifted the curtain on its first season of racing in 1946 with an all-star cast of original stockholders in attendance. Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, and several of the nationās big band leaders ā Kay Kyser, Henry James, Xavier Cugat, Sammy Kaye and Axel Stordahl ā had believed enough in the new racetrack being built in the South Jersey pines by former Olympian rower and politico John B. Kelly, Sr. that they eagerly invested in his project. Little did they know that it would be a box-office smash for several decades.
But eventually, Atlantic City fell victim to a combination of factors, limping to an ignominious death after the 2014 season under different ā and largely indifferent ā ownership.
Constructed by a Philadelphia brickwork company Atlantic City RC was built at a cost of more than $3.5 million.
It was a unique mile-and-an- eighth track, no less than 100 feet in width at any point, and made up of soil collected from local farms within a 10-mile radius. That soil was finely sifted and treated with white alba and, when laid over the circumference of the track, was very bright. The property also featured a half-mile training track, which abutted the barn area.
What was originally to be called the āAtlantic Pines Trackā (the name Atlantic City Race Course was officially adopted in 1949) opened on Monday, July 22, 1946 to a crowd of over 28,000, and was hailed as the āracetrack of the future.ā
The clubhouse, described by one local paper as āup to the minute in design,ā sported four elevators, a restaurant that seated up to 100 people, a barber shop, telegraph office and a two-story press box providing āunsurpassed communicationsā around the nation. Picturesque views of the surrounding pinelands, which encircled the track, could be enjoyed from the open-air grandstand.
The winner of the first-ever race that day was Christiana Stableās Oberod. When the last race of opening day had been run, the total handle was $1.38 million on eight contests.
The inaugural season of racing lasted 24 days and produced an average daily crowd of 15,617, who wagered an average of $1.3 million. The track didnāt need much advertising in order to lure big crowds; a typical day saw racegoers standing elbow-to-elbow on the track apron, jostling for position in order to view the horses coming onto the track through the tunnel that ran underneath the grandstand from the paddock, as well as to see the race itself.
