Pennsylvania Horseracing
Envisioning Pennsylvania as an experiment in utopian living, founder William Penn had his first colonial legislature ban "riotous sports" that might tempt his colonists into immoral and licentious behavior. Sports and athletic contests had long been associated with gambling, drinking, and other earthly sins.
Still, even Penn himself was not beyond a little honest competition. He reportedly raced his horses in Philadelphia down what would fittingly later be named Race Street; but, then, horse racing was one sport that the legislature did not specifically ban. And even outlawed sports found willing participants in the earliest Quaker colonists.
In 1687, Richard Crosby was fined five shillings for drunkenness and challenging a Swede to a bout of cudgels, in which the two opponents would joust at each other with short sticks.
As Scots Irish Presbyterians, English Anglicans, and other less restrained groups joined Penn's colony, their search for amusement, often fueled by alcohol, extended to cockfights, bull baits, cards, dice, foot racing, wrestling, and similar contests upon which they could wager. In response, the Pennsylvania Assembly and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting passed laws and bans to discourage these and other ungodly activities; laws and injunctions widely ignored by their fellow colonists.
Official censure continued into the early 1800s. The Pennsylvania legislature banned horse racing throughout the state in 1820, but by then deep changes and emerging forces in American life were giving rise to competitive sports and recreations.
Playing fields provided beneficial outlets for pent-up energies, important institutions of socialization, and training grounds for the learning of honesty, teamwork, fair play, subservience to authority, and other traits necessary for success and leadership in the competitive free market economy of the modern world.
Today, Pennsylvania horseracing continues to flourish in spite of the challenges to the sport.
Pennsylvania Horseracing Tracks
- Ladbroke at the Meadows - Pittsburgh
- Penn National Race Course - Grantville
- Philadelphia Park - Bensalem
- Pocono Downs - Wilkes-Barre
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Horseracing Tracks
- Arizona
- Rillito Park - Tucson
- Turf Paradise - Phoenix
- Yavapai Downs - Prescott Valley
- Arkansas
- California
- Alameda County Fair - Pleasanton
- Bay Meadows Racecourse - San Mateo
- Del Mar - Del Mar
- Fairplex Park - Pomona
- Ferndale Race Track - Ferndale
- Golden Gate Fields - Albany
- Hollywood Park - Inglewood
- Los Alamitos Race Course - Cypress
- Santa Anita Park - Arcadia
- Sonoma County Fair, Santa Rosa
- The Big Fresno Fair, Fresno
- Delaware
- Florida
- Illinois
- Arlington Park - Chicago
- Balmoral Park Harness Racing - Crete
- Fairmount Park - Collinsville
- Hawthorne Race Course - Chicago
- Maywood Park - Maywood Park
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kentucky
- Churchill Downs - Louisville
- Ellis Park - Henderson
- Keeneland - Lexington
- Kentucky Downs - Louisville / Franklin
- Red Mile - Lexington
- Turfway Park - Florence
- Louisiana
- Delta Downs - Vinson
- Evangeline Downs - Lafayette
- Fair Grounds Race Course - New Orleans
- Louisiana Downs - Bossier City
- Maryland
- Laurel Park - Maryland
- Ocean Downs - Ocean City
- Pimlico - Baltimore
- Rosecroft Raceway - Fort Washington
- Timonium - Timonium
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Great Lakes Downs - Muskegon
- Hazel Park Raceway - Hazel Park
- Mount Pleasant Meadows - Mt. Pleasant
- Minnesota
- Canterbury Park - Shakopee
- Nebraska
- Fonner Park - Grand Island
- Horsemen's Park - Omaha
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- Freehold Raceway - Freehold
- Meadowlands Racetrack - East Rutherford
- Monmouth Park - Oceanport
- New Mexico
- Downs at Albuquerque - Albuquerque
- Ruidoso Downs - Ruidoso
- Sunland Park - Sunland
- SunRay Park and Casino - Farmington
- New York
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Fair Meadows - Tulsa
- Remington Park - Oklahoma City
- Will Rogers Downs - Claremore
- Oregon
- Portland Meadows - Portland
- Pennsylvania
- Ladbroke at the Meadows - Pittsburgh
- Penn National Race Course - Grantville
- Philadelphia Park - Bensalem
- Pocono Downs - Wilkes-Barre
- Texas
- Virginia
- Colonial Downs - New Kent
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wyoming
- Wyoming Downs - Evanston