Racing Shift To Eliminate Track Jobs
By Stephen Hammill
Tribune Correspondent
The Tampa Tribune
Saturday, Aug 18, 2007
TAMPA - With the venerable dog track ending live racing in the middle of its 75th season, Hillary Fellenz of Tampa Greyhound said some jobs inevitably will be lost. "We'll be doing some severance for key employees. We're trying to do our best by everybody," she said.
"The state lottery was our first blow," Fellenz said. "Then the Hard Rock came in. This is an old Florida landmark that's hard to sustain in light of 2007 dollars."
Track officials say they want to focus on poker because of new legislation relaxing gambling rules. The rules, which took effect July 1, allow parimutuel facilities to operate card rooms without live racing.
As for the future, dog-race fans will have to visit Derby Lane across the Gandy Bridge in Pinellas County.
In a joint application sent Aug. 9, Derby Lane and Tampa Greyhound Track requested that all of Tampa's races from Aug. 20 to Dec. 31 be relocated to the facility on Gandy Boulevard. That plan was approved Friday, according to Joe Friedman, spokesman for the state's Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
As for the fate of the Tampa facility's track and grandstand, Fellenz said there are no plans for them right now. "Our long-term plan is to stay in business," she said.
Meanwhile, some trainers and kennel owners are fuming, asserting that Tampa Greyhound Track is putting them out of jobs by failing to deliver on a promise of a year's work.
"I'm $28,932 in debt. I've been told to go home in 30 days," trainer Linda Blanch said. "Why would they book a kennel 3,000 miles away to come to beautiful Tampa to tell me goodbye in 50 days?" Blanch relocated here from Denver 10 weeks ago with 50 dogs in tow.
One thing on which both trainers and track management agree: Greyhound racing in Florida is endangered.
"I think what they're trying to do is get rid of greyhound racing," said trainer Gene Cram of Dickinson Farm in Tampa, who disputes Tampa Greyhound's assertion they will look after any dogs left behind.
"None of these dogs is being brought to Derby Lane," he said. "They're not thinking about the dogs. It's one thing to say you're not going to open up next season; it's another thing to say you all have one week to get out. The dogs have kept them in business for 75 years."
Reporter Stephen Hammill can be reached at (813) 865-1523 or shammill@tampatrib.com.
Tampa Greyhounds Dealt Losing Hand
By Kathy Steele
Tribune Correspondent
The Tampa Tribune
Saturday, Aug 18, 2007
TAMPA - For better or worse, a bit of Old Florida is passing away.
Tonight, the sleek, muzzled greyhounds will barrel out of their chutes for the last time at Tampa Greyhound Track, rocketing around the oval at 45 mph, with Rusty the rabbit just a shade faster on his motorized monorail.
The days when thousands cheered their favorites - Oxford Shoes, Oshkosh Racey or Keefer - are gone. The clubhouse doesn't see the likes anymore of Hollywood stars Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Rooney, sports broadcaster Howard Cosell or New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who once co-owned a kennel that ran dogs at the Sulphur Springs track.
Country star George Jones drove from Lakeland, sometimes with his then-wife Tammy Wynette, and hung out in the "money room," said the track's 82-year-old head of security, Julian Bridges.
"They'd start playing music," Bridges said. "He'd bet the dogs and everyone would have a good time."
From the 1930s on, dog tracks were part of the exotic, kitschy life of Florida tourism, putting the Sunshine State on the map as the Greyhound State. When the Tampa track opened in 1933, an estimated 3,000 people came to see the $80,000 facility, rated the nation's finest.
In 1988, as dog tracks began competing with Florida's new lottery, more than 50 percent of the state's parimutuel betting, about $120 million, was from greyhound races, according to news accounts.
The gambling passion, however, has moved from dogs to poker, and the allure of casinos.
For recent weekday matinees, the Tampa track has been lucky to draw in the hundreds, mostly retirees looking for something fun.
"It's a whole passing of an era. Dog racing just doesn't adapt," said Hillary Fellenz, the track's marketing director for 18 years. "You can't put strobe lights on, like bowling. It is what it is."
After today, Derby Lane in St. Petersburg will be left as the state's major venue for live greyhound races.
Tampa Greyhound will continue with simulcast dog and horse racing from tracks across the state, and the facility's poker rooms will deal cards.
About 300 dogs that would have run at Tampa Greyhound this year have found slots at other tracks, Fellenz said. About six dogs will be placed for adoption with assistance from Greyhound Pets of America.
Animal rights groups and greyhound adoption associations long have pushed to end the races. "To have the Tampa track end live racing is huge," said Kelly Faircloth of Greyhound Rescue and Adoptions of Tampa Bay.
Watching The Dogs
When the track opened on the up-and-coming Nebraska Avenue, Sulphur Springs was in its heyday, with its medicinal springs and the arcade with its hotel and shops.
Winter tourists and daytrippers also headed for the track.
"Regular people that lived here, they didn't have money to go there," said Samuel Scoggins, 72, who grew up in Sulphur Springs. "About all you had was tourists.
"We used to go over to climb the trees outside the track and watch the dogs. They'd run us off, of course."
Clyde Levins' father sometimes took her and her twin sister, Ruth, to the races from their Temple Terrace home.
"I was small enough he'd sit me on the rail and watch the rabbit go," said Levins, 80.
She later took her three daughters to races.
"We had $10 apiece," she said. "That's all we played. I always bet on number 7."
There were human foot races as well. Winners got $20, said Levins' husband, Alfred. In the 1930s and 1940s, that was a lot of money.
Then there were the greased-pole races on special nights.
"You'd climb the pole and get a $10 bill," he said.
For years, general admission was $1 and $2.50 for clubhouse level, Fellenz said. Into the 1980s, there was a dress code, and employees kept sports coats and ties handy for men who showed up underdressed.
The fun days were in the 1970s, when the dog season ran from September through December, said Bridges, a track employee for about 40 years.
"We could hardly walk across the floor at the clubhouse it was so crowded," he said.
Some days, cars would back up on Interstate 275 to Sligh Avenue, Bridges said, and residents would call to complain about patrons parking in their yards.
The razing of the arcade in 1976 for track parking is still a sore point for many residents.
"It broke my heart when they tore down the arcade," said Penny Saver publisher and local historian Linda Hope. "It was a beautiful old building [demolished] for a parking lot nobody needed."
A Final Wager
On Friday afternoon, Perry Haynes, 72, tooled around in his motorized chair, chatting with friends and placing bets on the dogs.
Nearly 50 years ago, though, Haynes and other blacks weren't welcome.
"You'd stay out in your car," he said. At race time, blacks were allowed to come up to a special area by the fence.
"White guys would come out and take your bets," Haynes said. "They might come back or not, if you won."
He was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base then. By 1972, when Haynes returned from England, the track was open to all.
Riverview resident Paul Van Heuvel, 64, won the quiniela Friday, pocketing $13.
"I'll take it. It's all going in the pot," he said.
"It's a day out," said his brother, 74-year-old Al Van Heuvel.
Reporter Kathy Steele can be reached at (813) 835-2103 or ksteele@tampatrib.com.