The Other Half of the Calendar
A racetrack's own meeting fills only part of its calendar. The rest was filled by simulcasting: races run elsewhere, shown on screens on the betting floor, with the wagers settled into the pools of whichever track actually staged the race rather than into any pool belonging to the host building.
Plainridge published a menu of its own for every day it opened, listing each imported card and its post time. Those sheets are the largest single group of documents in the surviving record, and read together they show exactly which racing a New England betting floor sold across sixteen seasons.
The table below is built from 370 daily menus covering 2000 to 2015. It names 833 distinct tracks, of which 292 were carried on three or more days, adding up to 13,772 individual track-days of imported racing in total, which is a great deal more racing than the meeting itself ever staged.
The Tracks Carried Most Often
Two things stand out immediately. The most-carried card is local rather than prestigious, and the list mixes three different sports: standardbred harness racing, thoroughbred flat racing and greyhound racing. A betting floor sold whatever happened to be running somewhere at that hour, rather than whatever matched the code or the class of the host meeting.
| # | Track as printed | Days carried | Span |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RAYNHAM/TAUNTON | 289 | 2002–2008 |
| 2 | WOODBINE | 272 | 2000–2008 |
| 3 | FLAMBORO | 254 | 2000–2015 |
| 4 | YONKERS | 229 | 2000–2015 |
| 5 | MONTICELLO | 228 | 2000–2015 |
| 6 | MEADOWLANDS | 220 | 2000–2008 |
| 7 | PHILADELPHIA | 212 | 2000–2008 |
| 8 | NORTHFIELD | 211 | 2000–2008 |
| 9 | WONDERLAND GREYHOUND | 209 | 2002–2005 |
| 10 | BALMORAL | 208 | 2000–2015 |
| 11 | MOUNTAINEER | 202 | 2000–2008 |
| 12 | LOS ALAMITOS | 200 | 2000–2006 |
| 13 | PENN NATIONAL | 193 | 2000–2015 |
| 14 | FREEHOLD | 189 | 2000–2008 |
| 15 | MEADOWS | 175 | 2000–2015 |
| 16 | CHARLES TOWN | 174 | 2000–2015 |
| 17 | MONTREAL | 172 | 2000–2008 |
| 18 | TURF PARADISE | 163 | 2001–2006 |
| 19 | CAL-EXPO | 161 | 2001–2005 |
| 20 | POMPANO | 159 | 2000–2008 |
| 21 | AQUEDUCT | 156 | 2001–2015 |
| 22 | SAM HOUSTON | 156 | 2000–2015 |
| 23 | WINDSOR | 150 | 2000–2008 |
| 24 | DOVER | 148 | 2001–2006 |
| 25 | CALDER | 146 | 2000–2008 |
| 26 | DELTA DOWNS | 145 | 2001–2015 |
| 27 | SARATOGA | 144 | 2000–2008 |
| 28 | LAUREL | 140 | 2001–2006 |
| 29 | FINGER LAKES | 135 | 2000–2008 |
| 30 | ROSECROFT | 133 | 2000–2008 |
| 31 | NORTHLANDS | 129 | 2000–2008 |
| 32 | GOLDEN GATE | 129 | 2001–2008 |
| 33 | MAYWOOD | 128 | 2000–2006 |
| 34 | TURFWAY | 124 | 2000–2015 |
| 35 | NORTHVILLE | 123 | 2001–2006 |
| 36 | HOOSIER | 119 | 2001–2008 |
| 37 | SANTA ANITA | 109 | 2001–2006 |
| 38 | BEULAH | 106 | 2001–2006 |
| 39 | LINCOLN PARK GREYHOUND | 104 | 2002–2004 |
| 40 | FAIR GROUNDS | 104 | 2001–2015 |
| 41 | TAMPA BAY | 103 | 2001–2005 |
| 42 | AUSTRALIA-TRACK A/B | 103 | 2002–2003 |
| 43 | SCARBOROUGH | 101 | 2000–2008 |
| 44 | GREAT LAKES | 100 | 2000–2006 |
| 45 | RIDEAU CARLETON | 100 | 2000–2006 |
Greyhounds and the Canadian Circuit
14 of the regularly carried venues are dog tracks, which is a reminder that the betting floor and the racing strip were separate businesses sharing a building. Greyhound cards ran early and late in the day, filling the hours in which no horse track anywhere was sending out a signal to buy.
22 Canadian venues appear regularly too, and several of them run deep into the record. Ontario and Quebec harness cards suited a New England floor for a simple reason of geography: they raced on a compatible clock, so their post times slotted neatly between the American afternoon cards and the evening programmes.
Reading the Names
Track names appear exactly as the racing office typed them, including abbreviations and local spellings. None has been corrected or standardised, because the sheet is the record. Where a venue changed hands or changed its name across the years covered here, both forms may well appear separately in the ranking above.
The live Plainridge card was listed on these same menus alongside the imports, and it is held out of the ranking here so the table counts imported racing only. Those live cards are indexed by date in the season archive instead, one page for each afternoon on which the meeting raced.
Simulcast Questions
What is simulcast wagering?
It is betting on a race held somewhere else, shown on screens at your own track and settled into the pools of whichever track actually staged the race. A regional meeting could therefore offer betting on cards from across the country on days when it was not racing itself.
How many tracks did Plainridge carry?
Across the 370 daily menus that survive here, 833 distinct track names appear, and 292 of them were carried on three days or more. Together they account for 13,772 individual track-days of imported racing between 2000 and 2015.
Why did small tracks depend on it?
Because live racing occupies only a fraction of the calendar. A meeting that raced a few afternoons a week could open its betting floor daily by importing other cards, and for a good many regional tracks that imported revenue mattered rather more than the live product did.
Was it all harness racing?
No, and that is the most striking thing in the data. The menus mixed standardbred cards with thoroughbred tracks and with greyhound racing: 14 of the regularly carried venues here are dog tracks. A betting floor sold whatever was running, not whatever matched the host.
Which track was carried most often?
RAYNHAM/TAUNTON, on 289 of the surviving days. It is a local signal rather than a national one — the nearest simulcast and greyhound operation to Plainville, and therefore the most natural card for the same customers.
How complete is this record?
The menus were published one sheet per day and 370 of them survive, so this is a large sample rather than a continuous run. Track names are recorded exactly as the sheets printed them, including local spellings, and no name has been corrected or standardised.