In the Wood, Captain Bodgit Has Ghost Track of a Chance

Bow e Clubhouse --Sign on the side of an old Maryland racetrack.

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One of those bitter winter storms in Maryland probably knocked the i out of Bowie, a storied track that was closed for good in 1985, with a tape of saxophonist Stan Getz playing “Thanks for the Memories.”

Opened in 1914, Bowie is a ghost of a track now. A visit Thursday to the track about 35 miles south of Baltimore indicated that everybody just walked away when it was closed.

The glass-enclosed grandstand, a necessity because Bowie’s racing dates were in the heart of winter, is still there, with relatively few panels shattered. Three rusty turnstiles still stand at the clubhouse entrance. Dormant escalators are still intact.

The railroad tracks that helped bring horseplayers by the hundreds from New York and Philadelphia, right to Bowie’s door, are still there, though no longer in use. Musty concession stands still have beer cans and soft-drink cups sitting on the counters. Could the cans and cups really be 12 years old? Or do ghosts drink too?

Across Race Track Road, the two-lane thoroughfare that runs past the Bowie backstretch, hundreds of horses still occupy the track’s old barns, which are in remarkably good condition. When Bowie was closed, the track was converted into a training center and serves as a feeder to Pimlico and Laurel Park, the Maryland tracks still in operation. The Bowie horses don’t have to cross the road to reach the track. A roofed wooden bridge, more than 14 feet above the road, leads them to their workouts.

Gary Capuano, a 34-year-old trainer, remembers Bowie as a racetrack. In the early 1980s, Capuano rubbed horses for Mert Bailes, the late trainer who would regale his stable hands with stories of how he broke Secretariat.

“I was like a lot of people my age who came to this track in those days,” Capuano said. “I lost a few paychecks here, like everybody else.”

Capuano, who started training in 1988, has an 18-horse stable at Bowie, and one of his charges will be taking a five-hour van ride up the turnpikes to New York late this afternoon. He is Captain Bodgit, winner of the Florida Derby, and the 8-5 favorite in Saturday’s $500,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Some future-book oddsmakers in Nevada are listing Captain Bodgit as the favorite for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 3.

Captain Bodgit already has a great name, but he might just as well be called Commuter Special.

Beginning his career at Bowie last year as a 2-year-old, Captain Bodgit was vanned around as he won five of six starts at Laurel, Pimlico and Delaware Park. This winter, he was stabled at Hialeah and vanned to Gulfstream Park, another South Florida track, for three races. This weekend, it’s the Bowie-to-Aqueduct commute. Captain Bodgit won’t run over a track he has trained at until he gets to Churchill Downs for the Derby.

Capuano, who has always been a Maryland trainer, prefers to exercise all of his horses at Bowie because the track’s running surface is so kind to horses. In fact, when horsemen are asked to name the best tracks to train over, many of them say that Churchill Downs, Hialeah and Bowie are the top three, in no particular order.

Bowie has a history of preparing top horses for major victories elsewhere. Kelso, a five-time horse of the year in the 1960s, raced here. So did Kauai King, who won two prep races at Bowie in April of 1966 and went on to win the Derby. In 1968, Dancer’s Image won three of five starts at Bowie before finishing first in the Derby and then being disqualified.

Chris McCarron won his first race at Bowie. That was in 1974, more than 6,400 winners ago.

During a blizzard in the 1950s, the race train from New York was derailed before it reached the track. There were fatalities, and a doctor at the scene tried to stop a man who, having extricated himself from an overturned car, was running down the siding with blood covering his face.

“Get out of my way,” he said. “I’ve got to get down on the [daily] double.”

There are also a few skeletons in the Bowie closet. Larry MacPhail, the baseball executive who once ran the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees, served briefly as president of Bowie. One day, MacPhail got into some row at the track, and the stewards threw him out and suspended him. MacPhail may be the only racing official who was ever banned from his own track.

On Feb. 14, 1975, six jockeys rigged a race at Bowie, hoping to cash about $35,000 worth of trifecta tickets. Alert investigators sniffed out the scam and brought charges. Four of the riders were convicted and got prison sentences. One of them, Eric Walsh, said that he couldn’t face prison and killed himself on Kentucky Derby day in 1976.

The rigged race has been forever referred to as “the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.” Al Karwacki, now general manager of the off-track betting network in Southern California, was running Bowie at the time.

“One winning ticket was sold to a bettor who had nothing to do with the fix,” Karwacki said. “I told him we had to hold up his payment until the investigation was complete. Then I asked him how he could possibly have bet those longshots. He said he heard a guy at the window next to him making a lot of bets. So he decided to throw them in on his bets too.”

Horse Racing Notes

All will carry 123 pounds. . . . Droopy Stone, Jack At The Bank and Hoxie are a three-horse entry owned by Robert Perez, renowned for starting longshots in big races. . . . The weather will be cool, and possibly wet. Gary Capuano said that if the track is too muddy, he’ll scratch Captain Bodgit and run him in the Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico on April 19. . . . Second favorite Ordway, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up who ran second in the Gotham his last time out, will have a new jockey. Pat Day rode him in the Gotham on March 29 but chose to ride Crypto Star in the Arkansas Derby instead of Ordway, so Robbie Davis will be aboard.

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Wood Memorial

The field for Saturday’s $500,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct:

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PP. Horse Jockey Odds 1. Ordway Davis 2-1 2. Accelerator Smith 5-1 3. Droopy Stone Alvarado 30-1 4. Activist Migliore 12-1 5. Jack At The Bank Pezua 30-1 6. Captain Bodgit Solis 8-5 7. Smokin Mel Luzzi 8-1 8. Twin Spires Barton 20-1 9. Hoxie Chavez 30-1 10. Wild Tempest Velazquez 8-1

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