Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-05-30

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Orchard and Rig
by Race Tracks
A few old signs and ramshaekle
| buildings are all that is left to tell of
the downfall of the Old Orchard kite
track or the decadence of light harness
racing in Maine. What applies to the
once famous track at Old Orchard can
also be said of Rigby.
| There has been talk this spring that
a real estate concern might buy the
! former and cut it up into house lots,
but the report cannot be vouched for.
| The passing of those two race courses
in their day among the finest in
New England. is thrilling story
of blighted hopes and sunken fortunes
In this story there are also chapters
devoted to the decline of racing on all
the race tracks of York county and
| Cumberland county. The track at Saco
has been bought by Senator John
| Percy Deering, and cut up into house
lots. Bungalows are being built, where
| high priced nagS once trotted Tor
good sized purses. The tracks at
Buxton, New field and other places are
now little more than memories. While
the sport may be revived. old horse
mon do not anticipate anything of the
kind in their day.
In Saco it is not expected that there
will ever be another race course, and
| it is not anticipated that anyone will
! have the courage to build one at Old
Orchard or Rigby, after the experience
of the men who put thousands in the
enterprises and lost.
At Rigby it is estimated that $150,000
was spent in perfecting the parlor
track, yet today nothing remains to tell
the story of the good money sunk in
! the extensive South Portland bog,
which was reclaimed by men who be-
lieved that racing had come to stay in
Maine and that a magnificent course
would make for them fortune. After
! six years of racing the slump came.
1t is estimated BY horse fanciers who
are acquainted with the history of the
track that during that time $1,0O0,0OO
worth of horse flesh appeared on the
course contesting for the large purses
hung up by the management.
The beginning of the end was
marked by the elimination of the gay
midway. followed in short time by
the defalcation of the man in charge
of the pool box in which there was
about $4,000. The New England
Agricultural Society next decided not
to hold its annual exhibition at
! Rigby. and subsequently the park was
/ abandoned. The fastest and best
equipped race track in New England
is now nothing but a bayfield,. The
| buildings, consisting OF spacious
grandstand stables and other struc-
| lures which cost thousands of dollars.
were torn down and the lumber used
to build houses. Every year consider
able hay is harvested in the ring
where formerly worlds records in
! light harness racing were made.
There is talk this year of converting
the park into a vast potato patch, and
it may be done, although agricuturists
doubt if the land is exactly suited to
raising spuds for the soldiers.
White clover grows in front of the
! grandstand of the Old Orchard kite
track, the third Of its kind to be built
in the country, and the buildings are
tumbling down. The entire track is
deserted, except in August, when the
hay crop is harvested by husky farm
hands The late NJ. +. Porter was the
! father of the kite track. He believed
! that such a track would prove boon
/ to Old Orchard and would draw thou
sands of people to the resort from all
| parts of the United States. The only
/ other track of tho kind at that time
was at independence, la. a stock COM
pany was formed and the money
i raised to build the track, about SlOO'-
900 being subscribed
Several years ago Massachusetts
parties tried to buy the property with
the intention of introducing running
races. but the project fell through and
| it is not expected there will ever be
races of any kind on the large plat,
within sight of the ocean and but
short distance from the Boston &
| Maine railroad station. The track was
never popular because of the fact that
race fans could not sec the trotting
nags except when they were in the
! home stretch.
| .Rigby was opened in 1898, Nelson
lowering his exhibition mark to 200 at
that time. The first fall Early Bird
set the track record at 2.12a. In 1895,
Early Bird lowered the record to 2.10.
In 1896 Page. q green horse, entered
the 2.14 class and made a sensation by
winning the race in 203a. Joe
Patchen, on this track. lowered the
worlds stallion record to 2.O3. In the
following September the five fastest
horses in the world trotted on the
track. W. s. Andrews drove John X.
Gentry to a new worlds record OF
1 200a The track pacing record was
also broken on this track. In 1899
/ came the close of the career, when
two races were given.
Fly Bibiosraphy
| The literature of the hOuse-fiy has