Bay Meadows, 1934 to 2008: San Mateo’s Racetrack of Firsts
From 1934 to 2008, thoroughbreds raced in San Mateo on a one-mile dirt oval built on an old airfield. By the time it closed, Bay Meadows was the longest continually operating thoroughbred track in California.
Opening day, and three dates for it
Betting on horses had been illegal in California since 1910. William P. Kyne led the statewide effort to legalize parimutuel wagering, and a year later his track opened. It was built in 1933 and 1934 by developer Thomas P. Sullivan at a cost of about $400,000.
The opening date depends on who you read. The county historical association, an architecture database and Wikipedia give November 13, 1934. Daily Racing Form gives November 3. A Redwood City history column gives November 4, with 15,000 people attending. We use November 13 because three of our sources agree on it. We could not confirm the other two.
A track of firsts
Kyne is credited with bringing in things racegoers now take for granted: the totalizator board, the photo-finish camera, the daily double and the fully enclosed starting gate. Daily Racing Form dates the gate to 1939, when Bay Meadows became the first American track to use it.
In October 1945, two horses were flown from Los Angeles to San Mateo the day before the fall meeting opened, the first time a horse traveled by air to a race. The one remembered is El Lobo, who went on to win the Burlingame Handicap. In 1949 Bay Meadows became the first major track with regular parimutuel Quarter Horse racing, and in 1968 the first in California to race at night.
Seabiscuit, the war and Shoemaker
Seabiscuit won the Bay Meadows Handicap in 1937 and again in 1938, the second time carrying 133 pounds.
During World War II the track stayed open by giving 92 percent of its profits to the war effort, more than $4 million in all. One account calls it the only major West Coast track to race through the whole war.
Bill Shoemaker began his career here exercising horses in 1948, and won his first stakes race here in 1949. Cars raced here too: NASCAR came in 1954, 1955 and 1956, and in 1955 Elias Bowie became the first African American to start a top-level NASCAR race.
The last race
On December 1, 2006, jockey Russell Baze won the race at Bay Meadows that made him the winningest rider in thoroughbred history, passing Laffit Pincay Jr.
That same year the state racing board voted to have California’s tracks replace dirt with artificial surfaces, a change the company that ran the track put at $7 to $10 million. Bay Meadows was given a one-year exemption in 2007. The last race was run on August 17, 2008, in front of about 8,000 people. Construction of housing and commercial buildings on the site began that September.
This piece is part of our Bay Area horse history timeline. For the Peninsula’s older track, see Tanforan.