Celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Meadowlands, Part 1

by Bob Heyden

The 50^th anniversary of The Meadowlands is on Sept. 1, and since there’s a lot to take a look at, I’ll break it down into three parts. Today, the principals and the firsts/beginnings, followed by the outstanding moments and participants, with the finale focusing on the impact and how The Meadowlands changed the sport.

PRINCIPALS

Bob Quigley, a 2013 Hall of Fame inductee, was the first hire in 1973 and served as general manager until Dec. 27, 1982 when he yielded to Sam Anzalone. Quigley left to try and duplicate his magic in southern New Jersey overseeing Garden State Park.

Joe DeFrank was 42 when the doors opened on Sept. 1, 1976 and he became the very first racing secretary. He had an initial five-year contract with a provision he could pursue off-season work. He stayed until 2001 when he wrapped up his Hall of Fame career with Tad Stockman assuming the role.

Anthony Abbatiello was re-elected SBOA NJ president that year in 1976 and was as instrumental as any in bull-dogging Operation Meadowlands through.

Jack Krumpe was the executive director of the NJSEA (New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority). It’s very important to know/remember that The Meadowlands was part of the world’s largest sports complex, where the New York Football Giants debuted Oct. 10, 1976, losing to the Dallas Cowboys. The soccer team known as the Cosmos played there too. The most famous athlete on the planet, Pele, played his final game there Oct. 1, 1977. The Brendan Byrne Arena opened in 1981 and became the Continental Airlines Arena in 1996, and then the Izod Center in 2007 before closing for good in 2015.

Back to racing; remember that thoroughbred racing debuted at the brand-new Meadowlands at night on Labor Day weekend in 1977.

There were approximately 100 dates a year for the runners, meaning that the full racing plate had right around 300 dates per year.

Getting back to the standardbred beginnings, The Meadowlands became the 50th member of the HTA (Harness Tracks of America) headed then by Fred Van Lennep.

David “Sonny” Werblin was more or less the face of the tsunami that would soon be known as The Meadowlands. He turned the dream into reality. According to Hoof Beats just 10 years earlier the idea was that there would be “An all-weather dome built for $50 million of 800 acres touching both North Bergen and Secaucus.”

This dream was now real. The $294 million bond issue floated in New Jersey solved the temporary financial dilemma caused when the initial backing of a handful of New York bankers was withdrawn.

In the judging stand, John Fay, a veteran arbiter from New York, was appointed head judge. Paul Tishuk from Newton, NJ was appointed to be the state steward with Dr. Peter DeCinque, from Freehold Raceway, the track veterinarian.

One of the more astute hires was that of publicity maven Allen Gutterman who had worked with Sam Anzalone previously at Yonkers. Gutterman stayed until 1990.

In 1979, in the day-to-day operations, two huge names surfaced. On the track, 24-year-old John Campbell won the first of his 16 national and Meadowlands driving titles, and Bob Mulcahy signed on as the CEO of the entire Sports Complex, until 1997.

Bill Kolm was the director of advertising at the Complex. They actually had the George Washington Bridge shut down for an ad for the track’s opening, Anthony Abbatiello driving a horse clear across, symbolically showing that the gateway from New York to New Jersey was not an obstacle and that The Meadowlands welcomed one and all.

Joseph Malan was the director of mutuels; John J. Hall his assistant; Joseph Toscano the director of admissions; Ed Gorman the track announcer; and Charlie Singer the program director.

Just how successful was The Meadowlands in it’s infancy? Try this. In 1978 and 1979 The Meadowlands made a $13 million and then a $14 million gift to the state treasury.

Ray Brienza, a Hall of Fame writer from the Newark Star Ledger, said this in 1986, a decade into the opening, “The Meadowlands was built to provide money to Giants Stadium and the Sports Complex.” Whether that is entirely on point is open for debate, even now, but there is no arguing that The Meadowlands indeed was the cash cow for the rest of the Complex.

The New Jersey Nets and Devils also played their home games there and the New York Jets joined in the fun in 1984.

FIRSTS/BEGINNINGS

• The first claim was Private Label for 35G by the same team that won the first Meadowlands Pace with Escort, Carl LeCause and Bernie Mann.

• The first female driver, on night two (Sept. 2, 1976), was Jo Ann Looney driving Ruth Baker who finished fourth at 31-1.

• The first dead heat was Flag Call and Progression on Sept. 30, 1976, with Dick Hogan and Eldon Harner, paying $7 and $16.40, respectively in the 2:02 flat mile.

• The first sub 1:55 male horse was Shadyside Trixie in the summer of 1977. But at age 6 the year prior when the doors opened in East Rutherford, Shadyside Trixie hardly looked the part with $86G lifetime on the gelding’s card with a 1:59 4 career best. Can you say “horse for the course?”

• The first $100G claim, anywhere, was made on March 16, 1979 by Thomas Fay from New England taking Taurus Romeo, who finished sixth. The irony is he won the race with his own Seatrain who he had claimed for $65,000 a month prior.

• The first year Meadowlands numbers in attendance and handle going from Sept. 1, 1976 through Aug. 1, 1977 were 17,213 attended nightly and pushed through the windows and average of $1,792,510.

• The first Meadowlands Pace was in 1977 with an industry record $425,000 up for grabs. The winner was Escort. His career numbers of 36 10-10-4 and $211,975 show well over 75 per cent of that was banked on that one night.

• Who was the first Triple Crown winner to race at The Meadowlands? Gotcha! It wasn’t Niatross in 1980, it was Seattle Slew in 1978, and he got beat in the Paterson Handicap.

• The first superstar was Whata Baron, most especially in 1978 when the 6-year-old powerhouse went 11-for-13 good for $234,650 with a 1:53.4 track record race mark competing for Lew Williams.

• The first real fairytale story surely was Fight The Foe. In 1978 at 4 racing out of town, he was a pedestrian 20 7-5-0 with $15,220. But, in 1979, showing claiming lines as low as $4,000, he was claimed a record six times and kept getting better, no matter who took him. A switch went on apparently, and nobody shut it back off for four years. He retired north of three-quarters-of-a-million without ever winning a stakes race.

In Part 2, we’ll look at the stars and standout moments in the 50-year history of The Meadowlands.