#Calder Race Course

The annual Dec. 26 start of the Santa Anita season has a natural, anticipatory, turn-the-page vibe to it. But this mark-your-calendar Opening Day mainstay hasn't always been a post-holiday tradition. Although Santa Anita has kicked off its winter/spring meet on the day after Christmas every year since 1977, the track originally opened in 1934 on…

Back in 2006, the X Games were all the rage in America. The extreme sports showcase on ESPN was pulling in viewers on television and tens of thousands of spectators were turning out to events to watch daredevils on skateboards, bicycles, or snowboards. The management at Calder Race Course in Miami Gardens, Fla. took notice and wondered if they…

The new millennium was not kind to horse racing in Chicagoland. In 2000, the Bidwill family's Sportsman's Park, the bullring in the gritty south side suburb of Cicero that for years hosted both Standardbred and Thoroughbred racing, had just been transformed to an auto track that planned to continue offering Thoroughbred races on dirt spread over a…