Centennial Race Track
Centennial Race Track was a horse racing track located in Littleton, Colorado. The facility opened on July 4, 1950 after the Colorado legislature passed the Parimutuel Act of 1948 opening the way for parimutuel betting. Nearly 10,000 people attended opening day, with a handle of over $500,000. The track faced stiff competition from nearby tracks and its geographic location placed it far from the famed stables on the east and west coasts. As a result, attendance dropped sharply during the first year. For the remainder of the 1950 season, income only averaged $50,000 per day. The track was devastated by the 1965 Great South Platte Flood, forcing the rescue of more than a hundred horses by owners, trainers and jockeys. Diversification was planned early on with IndyCar motor races held on the track in 1951 and 1952, but not after that. Track promoters brought in famous jockeys such as Bill Shoemaker and Bill Hartack William John Hartack Jr. (December 9, 1932 – November 26, 2007), ...
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Horse Racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic premise – to identify which of two or more horses is the fastest over a set course or distance – has been mostly unchanged since at least classical antiquity. Horse races vary widely in format, and many countries have developed their own particular traditions around the sport. Variations include restricting races to particular breeds, running over obstacles, running over different distances, running on different track surfaces, and running in different gaits. In some races, horses are assigned different weights to carry to reflect differences in ability, a process known as handicapping. While horses are sometimes raced purely for sport, a major part of horse racing's interest and economic importance is in the gambling associated with ...
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Littleton, Colorado
Littleton is a home rule municipality city located in Arapahoe, Douglas, and Jefferson counties, Colorado, United States. Littleton is the county seat of Arapahoe County and is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city population was 45,652 at the 2020 United States Census, ranking as the 20th most populous municipality in the State of Colorado. History The city of Littleton's history dates back to the 1859 Pike's Peak Gold Rush, which brought not only gold seekers, but merchants and farmers to the community. Richard Sullivan Little was an engineer from New Hampshire who made his way out West to work on irrigation systems. Little soon decided to settle in the area at present day Littleton and brought his wife Angeline out from the East in 1862. The Littles, along with many neighbors, built the Rough and Ready Flour Mill in 1867, which provided a solid economic base in the community. By 1890, the community had grown to 245 people and t ...
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Parimutuel Betting
Parimutuel betting or pool betting is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the "house-take" or "vigorish" are deducted, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all winning bets. In some countries it is known as the tote after the totalisator, which calculates and displays bets already made. In short, the word ''parimutuel'' implies tiered winnings/earnings. The parimutuel system is used in gambling on horse racing, greyhound racing, jai alai, and other sporting events of relatively short duration in which participants finish in a ranked order. A modified parimutuel system is also used in some lottery games. Definition Parimutuel betting differs from fixed-odds betting in that the final payout is not determined until the pool is closed – in fixed odds betting, the payout is agreed at the time the bet is sold. Parimutuel gambling is frequently state-regulated, and offered in many places where gamb ...
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IndyCar
INDYCAR, LLC, is an American-based auto racing sanctioning body for Indy car racing and other disciplines of open wheel car racing. The organization sanctions five racing series: the premier IndyCar Series with its centerpiece the Indianapolis 500, developmental series Indy Lights, the Indy Pro 2000 Championship and the U.S. F2000 National Championship, which are all a part of the Road to Indy and the Global Mazda MX-5 Cup. IndyCar is recognized as a member organization of the FIA through ACCUS. The sanctioning body was formed in 1994 under the name Indy Racing League by Hulman & Company, which also owned the Indianapolis Motor Speedway complex, and began competition in 1996. The trademark name INDYCAR was officially adopted on January 1, 2011. The sport of open-wheel car racing itself, also historically referred to as Championship Car racing or Indy racing, traces its roots to as early as 1905. It is the fifth major sanctioning body to govern the sport of Indy car racing, ...
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Bill Shoemaker
William Lee Shoemaker (August 19, 1931 – October 12, 2003) was an American jockey. For 29 years he held the world record for total professional jockey victories. Early life Referred to as "Bill", "Willie," and "The Shoe", William Lee Shoemaker was born in the town of Fabens, Texas. At , Shoemaker was so small at birth that he was not expected to survive the night. Put in a shoebox on the oven to stay warm, he survived, but remained small, growing to and weighing . His diminutive size proved an asset as he went on to become a giant in thoroughbred horse racing, despite dropping out of El Monte High School in El Monte, California. Jockey career Shoemaker's career as a jockey began in his teenage years, with his first professional ride on March 19, 1949. The first of his eventual 8,833 career victories came a month later, on April 20, aboard Shafter V, at Golden Gate Fields in Albany, California. In 1951, he won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award. At the age of 19, ...
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Bill Hartack
William John Hartack Jr. (December 9, 1932 – November 26, 2007), born in Colver, Pennsylvania, was a Hall of Fame jockey. Colver is in the northwestern part of Cambria Township, 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Ebensburg, the county seat. Early life and career Referred to by the media as both "Bill" and "Willie" (Hartack detested being called "Willie") during his racing career, Hartack grew up on a farm in the Blacklick Township area of Cambria County, Pennsylvania. His mother died from injuries in an automobile accident in 1940, when Hartack was 8. Small in stature, at age 17 he stood 5 ft. 4 in. (1.63 m) and weighed 111 lb (50 kg), a size that enabled him to pursue a career as a jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. By his third season of racing, Hartack was the United States' leading jockey in both wins and money earned. He would go on to win a National Champion title six times. He and Eddie Arcaro are the only two jockeys to ever win the Kentucky Derby ...
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Defunct Horse Racing Venues In The United States
Defunct (no longer in use or active) may refer to: * ''Defunct'' (video game), 2014 * Zombie process or defunct process, in Unix-like operating systems See also * * :Former entities * End-of-life product * Obsolescence Obsolescence is the state of being which occurs when an object, service, or practice is no longer maintained or required even though it may still be in good working order. It usually happens when something that is more efficient or less risky r ...

Motorsport Venues In Colorado
Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two-wheeled motorised vehicles under the banner of motorcycle racing, and includes off-road racing such as motocross. Four- (or more) wheeled motorsport competition is globally governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA); and the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) governs two-wheeled competition. Likewise, the Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM) governs powerboat racing while the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) governs air sports, including aeroplane racing. All vehicles that participate in motorsports must adhere to the regulations that are set out by the respective global governing body. History In 1894, a French newspaper organised a race from Paris to Rouen and back, starting cit ...
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Defunct Motorsport Venues In The United States
Defunct (no longer in use or active) may refer to: * ''Defunct'' (video game), 2014 * Zombie process or defunct process, in Unix-like operating systems See also * * :Former entities * End-of-life product * Obsolescence Obsolescence is the state of being which occurs when an object, service, or practice is no longer maintained or required even though it may still be in good working order. It usually happens when something that is more efficient or less risky r ...