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The Tampa Grayhound closed it's doors tonight to live Grayhound racing, it will now become an OTB/poker site.
I got my first taste of gambling at this track. I worked there as a leadout for a couple of years and ended up hooking up with a trainer for a few years more.
My brothers and I went tonight, and all the memories, sites, and smells all came back. We could all see our Father sitting on those red and white bench's waiting for us to get off work, enjoying the races while waiting. My Father loved the dogs so much. It was a little odd to us that the track ended live racing 12 years to the day that our Father passed away, we had to go.
Too many good times to mention. The 25 cent hot dog, beer and soda nights. Man, they use to pack them in on those nights. And the chicks, WOW!
The sad thing is that not many people care about dog racing anymore. When I got into it, it was the begining of the end for the Grayhound business in Florida. The Lottery in Florida came out in the mid to late 80's and took people away, and internet gambling took the rest I guess. When it comes to gambling people like horses more than dogs, and that's the bottom line to that.
One thing that will always be, is that one of the dogs that we trained (Odd Greating) will always hold the track record at the TGT for the 7/16ths mile race. We ended up running 1st and 2nd in the championship race that year, Barbra Green (My Fathers favorite) running 1st and Greeding getting 2nd back in 1990.
How did I do tonight? I played two races. A 4 dog box that didn't hit, and I picked a 15 to 1 winner in the second race I played. But I played it 5/1-3/1-3-7. It came in 5/1/6/3.
Even though I didn't come out a winner, I still came out a BIG winner tonight, I'll miss you TGT. Thanks for the memories.
I got my first taste of gambling at this track. I worked there as a leadout for a couple of years and ended up hooking up with a trainer for a few years more.
My brothers and I went tonight, and all the memories, sites, and smells all came back. We could all see our Father sitting on those red and white bench's waiting for us to get off work, enjoying the races while waiting. My Father loved the dogs so much. It was a little odd to us that the track ended live racing 12 years to the day that our Father passed away, we had to go.
Too many good times to mention. The 25 cent hot dog, beer and soda nights. Man, they use to pack them in on those nights. And the chicks, WOW!
The sad thing is that not many people care about dog racing anymore. When I got into it, it was the begining of the end for the Grayhound business in Florida. The Lottery in Florida came out in the mid to late 80's and took people away, and internet gambling took the rest I guess. When it comes to gambling people like horses more than dogs, and that's the bottom line to that.
One thing that will always be, is that one of the dogs that we trained (Odd Greating) will always hold the track record at the TGT for the 7/16ths mile race. We ended up running 1st and 2nd in the championship race that year, Barbra Green (My Fathers favorite) running 1st and Greeding getting 2nd back in 1990.
How did I do tonight? I played two races. A 4 dog box that didn't hit, and I picked a 15 to 1 winner in the second race I played. But I played it 5/1-3/1-3-7. It came in 5/1/6/3.
Even though I didn't come out a winner, I still came out a BIG winner tonight, I'll miss you TGT. Thanks for the memories.
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