The 2010 McChump ??/365 Racing Tour

Did Someone Say "Fair Racing"?

The Zortman Jail

14 Exciting Tracks! 8 Exotic States and Provinces! 13 Thrilling Storyettes! (So far!)

Warning! The 2010 stories are mostly pictures, and not for the faint of bandwidth!

  • Hawthorne Racecourse, Stickney, IL, Spring, 2010

Hardly anyone showed up at the track. It was for the best, I guess ... our horses kept losing and losing.

A few pix.

  • Fairmount Park, Collinsville, IL, May 15, 2010

Driveby visit to Fairmount, on the way to Montana. It was a dark and stormy night.

  • Lincoln Racecourse, Lincoln, NE, May 16, 2010

No dinkin' around this trip, straight from Fairmount to Lincoln, drivin' fast.

Some pix of Lincoln, and also of the Oregon Trail in Nebraska.

  • Montana Downs, Great Falls, MT, July 24, 2010

The county found a new operator for the racing at the fairgrounds this year, one Eric Spector ... who also got the simulcast franchise for all Montana in return for a promise to run live racing. He renamed this track and the others he took over "Montana Downs". Poor little track one year it's the Montana State Fair meet then it's Charlie Russell Downs and now this, Montana Downs. But from the standpoint of a regulatrs schlub who just wants to have some fun and make a few bets into monster pools, it went off just fine.

Couple pix is all.

  • Arlington Park, Arlington Heights, IL, Aug 1, 2010

Well this was a little more like it. An actual crowd. Plus decent weather. Conclusion: Fun day.

Just pictures.

  • Missoula, MT, Aug 14, 2010

This was another meet that fell under the Montana Downs umbrella of the Spector organization. In fact they got this meet brought back from the dead, as it had not run for at least a couple years prior to this. So that was good.

  • White Pine Raceway. Ely, NV, Aug 22, 2010 (Track #149)

No visit to a racetrack in Nevada could possibly take place without a visit to Las Vegas, could it? I mean, if McChump #2 is involved. So this visit did.

  • Fairgrounds, Walla Walla, WA, September 5, 2010 (Track #150)

After a long and rather convoluted trip across the Rockies from Montana, what to the wondering eye should appear but a pretty good little fair on the south side of Walla Walla, and not at all difficult to find ... Walla Walla not being the largest town you ever did see (but a nifty looking downtown).

  • Yakima Meadows, Yakima, WA, September 6th, 2010
  • Emerald Downs, Auburn, WA, September 6th, 2010

Yakima Meadows is a track I never got to visit when it was running, but I thought maybe I should stop by anyhow to see what was what, as long as I happened to be driving by there anyhow. So I did. The grandstands are still there, but they've let the track go to hell, and created a new short track car or motorcycle or something thing in front of the stands now.

  • Portland Meadows, Portland, OR, Sept. 8th, 2010

If you're headed down I-5 anyhow, why not stop at Portland Meadows? But first I had to stop at the Madsens's Lumberjack Store in semi-rural Washington.

  • Harney County Fair, Burns, OR, September 10th, 2010 (Track #151)

As long as I had been in Portland anyhow to stop by Portland Meadows, I thought I should stop by the ocean, too. So I did, just outside Tillamook.

  • Eastern Idaho State Fair, Blackfoot, ID, September 11th, 2010 (Track #152)

Had to be on the road mighty early to make it from Burns, OR, to Blackfoot, ID, by ~ post time. Fog in the sunrise ... and this was an hour into the trip

  • Yellowstone Downs, Billings, MT, September 12th, 2010

Bright and early after the Blackfoot fair and Bop-a-Dip in Butte, it was off to Billings the next day for racing at scenic Yellowstone Downs. Big crowd. Note the lack of tornado damage to the grandstand. It tore the roof off the indoor pavilion just behind.