Through 73 years and 19 U.S. presidential terms, 93-year-old teller Duke Burke has been a stalwart at The Afternoon Delight. His seven-decades long tenure will come to an end when the track closes permanently next Saturday.

by Debbie Little

With Freehold Raceway set to close on Saturday (Dec. 28), many have shared their memories about the Central New Jersey half-mile oval.

It’s hard to imagine that anyone has as many memories as 93-year-old Charles “Duke” Burke.

“When I graduated from Freehold High School, I went into the service,” Burke said. “I served as a Marine for three years, and then when I got out of the service, my mother and father were both working at the track at the time, and so they got me a job, and I’ve been there ever since.”

It was 1952, and Burke was just 21 when he started his lifelong journey at Freehold.

Now in his 73rd year at “The Afternoon Delight,” Burke is a teller by trade, but he takes after both of his parents.

“Back in those days, we had sellers and we had cashiers,” Burke said. “So, my mom was a cashier, but my father was a teller at that particular time. Nowadays we can do both, tellers can cash, or they can sell.”

Stu Berman, 72, a friend of Burke’s, was a teller at The Meadowlands on Opening Night in 1976.

“I’ve been doing it for a long, long time,” Berman said. “He started when I was born; 1952 he started.”

Berman retired last year after over 47 years at The Big M, climbing the ranks to director of mutuels. During his tenure, Berman said he had plenty of interaction with Burke, especially in the ’80s and ’90s

“He was working The Meadowlands at night and Freehold during the day,” Berman said. “Back then, everybody was going six days, and he worked every day, day and night.”

In addition to The Meadowlands, Burke also worked at New Jersey’s Garden State Park and Monmouth Park, as well as Liberty Bell Park in Philadelphia, PA, but Freehold was always his home base.

Burke’s early days at Freehold were a different time, when going to the track was almost an event.

“Yeah, they were getting dressed up to come to the track, whether they bet, you know, $2 or $200 or more,” Burke said. “We lost all of that. I mean, it’s not for me to say, but the quote, unquote, grownups, nowadays come whichever way they want to, whether it’s shorts or sneakers or whatever.”

Burke was there in 1967 when the track was rebuilt so that eight horses could go behind the gate. Prior to that, Freehold was only able to accommodate six noses on the gate with two trailers.

He was also there before and after the fire in 1984 that claimed the track’s grandstand and dining room.

Prior to the fire, Burke had a popular and elite window.

“He had a $50 window, which now, there’s no such thing as a $50 window at a racetrack… and he had a line, in the ’80s and ’90s, out the door,” Berman said. “I mean, just visualize it. He had a great, great spot there.”

Burke said the track did try to give some privacy to the big bettors at his $50 window.

“They had partitions put up on either side, so people couldn’t get too close,” he said.

Although Burke lives near Freehold Raceway, he didn’t actually witness the fire, but afterwards, to him, it was mostly business as usual.

“You know, we had the fire, they built the building, and I just went to work,” he said. “[Right after] the fire, we had tents that we all stayed in outside, and we had windows out behind the tote board, but that was it. We all just came to work.

“I was able to get some photographs [of the fire] that the track photographer took at the particular time, and I still have them someplace, somewhere, I don’t throw anything away.”

Berman, who just saw Burke a week ago, plans to be there for Closing Day.

“I go to Freehold quite often and the first place I go is to see him,” Berman said. “He’s always happy to see me because I’m a trustee on the pension and he’s always asking me, ‘How’s the pension?’

“I say, ‘Duke, you’ve been collecting that pension longer than anybody else, so stop it.’ How’s the pension? It’s fine.”

On a more serious note, Berman is concerned for those currently working and racing at Freehold.

“It’s sad, you know, and I feel bad for the horsemen and all the people working there. I think 73 people are going to be out of jobs.

“I feel bad for all the guys and the horses at Gaitway and all the farms down there. Where are they going to go?”

Through 19 U.S. presidential terms, Burke has been happy working at Freehold.

“Well, let me put it this way, we had fun,” he said. “All the clerks, we would come to work with 103-degree temperatures just to be there, and just to be around and enjoy each other, that’s the whole thing.”

Burke said he expects to see a lot of familiar faces on Dec. 28 just to say “Hi” one last time.

At this time, the nonagenarian has no plans to look for work elsewhere.

“No, this is going to be it for me,” Buke said. “I know some people have gone to other tracks. I know another person who is going to go to another track, but not me. I’m just going to just take it easy from here on out.

“It did hit me quite a bit when I found out that they were going to close down. And I guess I’m just going to have to pull my bootstraps up and just go through everything else after that.

“Truthfully, I never thought of retiring. I was going to stay until, quote, unquote, I died. But they’re forcing me to take it easy.

“All I can say is it’s a shame. If I was a betting man, I would have bet that Freehold Raceway would never close, but I would have lost, because now they’re going to close.”