Fans Bid Farewell to Atlantic City Race Course

P.K. Hilliard gripped his racing program and surveyed the Atlantic City Race Course: empty benches, a broken tote board and a field of mediocre horses getting ready for the first race.

This week’s five-day meet, which ends Saturday, marks the demise of live racing at the track.

“I’m sad. It’s like going to a funeral,” the 73-year-old Hilliard said. “It’s been a slow death and it’s finally here.”

Two sections over, track mascot Ed Zacta--a man wearing a horse costume--made his rounds, trying to cheer up nostalgic regulars.

“They’re very sad about it. To see it close after 52 years, it’s awful. I’m trying to make them happier,” he said.

A real estate developer has signed an agreement to buy the 282-acre site, but there are no plans to continue operating it as a race course.

Founded by Grace Kelly’s father and backed by stockholders that included Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope, the track opened July 22, 1946, and routinely drew 30,000 fans a day in its heyday.

That was before casino gambling in Atlantic City 12 miles away siphoned much of the track’s business.

The total live handle has plunged from $19.6 million in 1992 to less than $1 million. Average daily attendance has dropped each year, from 3,530 in 1992 to 2,726 last year.