2023 -- Drone Video of Pompano Park Harness Track Being Torn Down
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- čas přidán 9. 05. 2023
- I am the grandson of Veral Bowman, a semi-famous trainer and driver from Canada and Pompano Beach since the 1980s. I also worked at Pompano Harness for a number of years as a part-time starting gate driver. I am also a photographer and drone operator.
Clarke Bowman www.clarkebowmanphotography.com
Pompano Park Harness Horse Track has been a landmark in Pompano Beach, Florida since the 1960s. Thousands of people have moved to South Florida over the years for horse racing in Pompano, including my grandparents and father. Horse racing put Pompano Beach on the map -- without horse racing, Pompano Beach would never be the city that it is today.
The racetrack ownership changed hands over the years from casino to casino, until finally it was approved for a casino to have slot machines. From there, it was only a matter of time until the track's permanent closing. That last race happened in April of 2022.
And the new casino has great development plans for the large stable and paddock and track area that used to be loved and cherished by horsemen and fans of the sport.
I was lucky enough to capture incredible 4K footage of the grandstands before it was completely demolished, and the paddock area.
I am a Part 107 FAA-certified drone pilot, all FAA height restrictions were followed, and no laws were broken in the recording of this video. This video is NOT monetized, and I do not claim the rights to any music or audio used in this video. I only want to memorialize and capture the beauty of Pompano Harness Track and what it means to me and so many others.
LONG LIVE THE POMP!
Clarke Bowman www.clarkebowmanphotography.com
Song used:
"Thinking In Silence" - Ashot Danielyan - Sport
Spent 2 winters working w the horses here. Wonderful part of my youth. Sad to see it go.
Makes this grown man cry. Seriously. But greetings from Northfeild Park
Very beautiful video! This demolition video is well made, hard to watch. My dear friend, longtime harness trainer, George Filion died on this track , on 4/10/2011, from a heart attack while training a horse. Great man!
🇸🇪 Here. It feels like a hundred years years ago, when I spent a winter grooming horses for the great Mr W. R. Haughton, the track was still named 'Pompano Park Raceways'.
It was in 1982 - 1983, and Swedes had made themselves names at the American scene. Seriously.
A couple of Swedish trainers started up business in America already during the early seventies, Berndt Lindstedt, Håkan Wallner and Jan Johnson. They built up Continental Farms, trained and raced horses like Ambro Goal, Nan's Catch, Dart Hanover (One time winner, one time second in the Elitlopp), Pershing (his second career, so to speak), Keystone Profile, Workaholic, Royal Prestige, Kit Lobel, Yankee Glide, Smok'n Lantern and many more.
Sören Nordin and sons Jan and Ulf followed, and through the years I GUESS around 20 trainers, and how many grooms? MANY.
When I was at Haughton Stables we were around ten Swedes. Stanley Dancer also had 'a Swedish connection', and of course Continental Farms had several Swedes on the payroll.
Most of us were younger than 25, the limit for being in a so called (😂) 'Exchange student's program', by 'The Swedish - American Foundation'. I have no idea what they actually did, how serious their work was, but it opened doors to apply for a job at a bunch of trainers, and no questions asked about visa, the American embassy in Stockholm took copies of the papers from the Foundation and job offers, that was it. We weren't 'working', we were 'studying the American way of grooming and training harness horses'. Yeah, 😂, I can't say I studied, my problem was that my poor English sometimes made it difficult to understand instructions from the second trainers, but after a while I could understand them. However, I could barely make myself understood, of a weird reason. In the seventies, in Swedish schools, they were very particular with that we should speak Brittish English. And I couldn't fit that in my mouth, it came out some noises from my mouth 😂😂! This was a disability, but there were other Swedes to translate if needed, but I avoided to speak English.
The thing is that, if you live in a different country, where a lot of things, situations, EXPRESSIONS etc either can't be straight translated, or doesn't even exist in your mother tongue, you start to mix in words, or grammar, from the new language.
We didn't speak Swedish, we spoke Swenglish. Sometimes it happened that one person reflected a second over what someone else said, and started to laughing, it could be ridiculous. English words with Swedish grammar, Swedish words and English grammar.
Back then, a huge area on the other aside of the race track was for training. It was a while ago, but as I remember, it was on the other side of the railroad 🤔🤔🤔🤔?? Barns, dormitories, and a full mile, full width, training track.
I also remember a place, not far from a laundrette, that had the best subs in the whole freaking world🤤🤤😋! More than an inch layer of meet or cheese, a garlic sauce to die for, crispy, fresh iceberg, tomatoes, red onion and cucumber. In absolutely fresh bread.
We went there at least once a week, when doing, or leaving, the laundry. A medium sub was a foot, cut in two. One for lunch, one for dinner 👍👌.
Greenbrier, I still have a mug somewhere 😂.
So many memories, so many memories.
Now that's all that's left.😮💨😢😢
I spent the summer at the Meadowlands. Concrete, asphalt and sand. The only windy place around was on the track. F 80-85°, no wind.
My roommate and I were the only people who could sleep at night 😂. She had a portable fan, like a suitcase, where you open the sides on. It fitted perfectly in the window. We covered the rest of the window with aluminum foil, to reflect the sun and heat.
During the days we had the fan running, blowing outwards, so the relatively cold air in the corridor were sucked into the room beneath the door.
Before bedtime we went out to the ice machine (for the horse's leg etc) and filled half of a tall bucket each (it had been clay or something like that in them before). We brought them to the showers, filled up with cold water. Put the buckets besides the beds. Went to bed, with one hand in the bucket. Perfect cooling system!! It was so warm, so the ice didn't cold burn (or what it's called in English) the hands.
I was a week at Vernon Dawns too. It was like coming to paradise from the Meadowlands 😅. Camping outside my horse's stall, everything old and worn out (made me think of the books about 'The Black Stallion' from when I was ten-twelve years old!), but it was heaven; AIR!, wind, a pleasant temperature, trees and a creek. And, 😂, a really sweet guy who bought me breakfast from the coffee truck the whole week!
Breakfast, that brought up a terrible memory...😵💫😫😩😭 American coffee. I hope, for your sake, that it has changed for the better since the early eighties. In Sweden, I happily drink coffee because it tastes good. Before I went to the US, and after coming home again.
In America, a half cup of sugar, and half coffee/half milk. In that Greenbrier mug. The only reason for drinking coffee was literally the caffeine!!
This was a journey back in time, wow. Despite the coffee and awful environment at the Meadowlands, a happy time! We lived there and then. No worries for tomorrow, money at Thursday, what did it matter if your wallet was almost empty? One solid meal at the canteen, good enough for Tuesday and Wednesday.
And, everything is gone now. Pompano Raceway isn't at all anymore.
The Meadowlands Racetrack isn't the same.
The whole business has changed.😢
"Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.."
Fabulous memories...I remember almost everything you wrote about...Worked for J. Silverman Stables (RIP) on training side breaking yearlings...Meadowlands, Grand Circuit was all a blast!!!
Sorry to see another harness track close and being demolished. I only got to visit Pompano Park one time when I was vacationing in the Miami area. It was a beautiful race track and as mentioned was the winter place for top harness racing. I did enjoy watching and wagering on the races here right up till the last program. I hope some group can get together and try to establish a new harness track somewhere in Florida. We still need a southern harness race track for winter racing where the weather is warmer. Best wishes to all the old crew and horse owners in Florida.
I wish the track lived longer
Thank you guys for sharing my video!
Outstanding video. Are you going to make this a series as each individual track closes? Maybe it would be a smarter move on the part of the USTA to feature real marketing campaigns that can cause the tracks to be successful and profitable? Possibly hire people that know what they are doing to gather crowds and keep them coming back? Let's do videos about what's working, not what's failing. Those of us earning millions in marketing are embarrassed to see what's happening for promotion when it comes to the sport we love.
Harness racing has always done great promotion. Take Batavia Downs for instance. They promote the hell out of the Kentucky Derby. Food deals, drink deals, contests, radio stations broadcasting live, free play on their slots and more. But thats not harness racing.They take most of the grandstands for their slots, eat into the area to watch harness racing and let it fall apart. They have 3pm posts so working people can't get there to watch. When the Hambletonian is running they don't even make a peep about it. They might have it on a screen in the corner and you'll have to find somewhere to bet it while they run a 3 claimer at the same time. There's better and more promotion for pickleball and corn hole than harness racing.
What a fascinating aerial footage of Pompano Park! It's incredible how drones can offer us a unique perspective on historical sites like this one.
The stands and the abandoned grounds evokes a sense of nostalgia and intrigue. Thank you for taking us on this exploration and showing us this historic location.
Have fun looking at google maps. You can see around 2006 is when they made the new casino and 15 years after when Harrah's took over and developed the new lot.
This is so sad! RIP Isle Casino Pompano Park!
Great video Very sad to see Pompano Park gone
Absolutely heart breaking. This is what happens when you have a coyote protecting the hen house.
well said jeff
Amazing video Clarke!
Tragic. This got me through COVID. This is what happens when you decouple #Deathsantis
Great video . #SouthFloridaAwaits
Very sad.
Pompano was just another casualty of modern, electronic, minimal employees needed snake pit casinos.
Eventually casinos will be devoid of live dealers and as soul-less as the rest of this computerized helltopia called modern life.
A shame. I saw state greed cause the Meadowlands downsize, and the old grandstand sits like a mausoleum viewable from the new grandstand area I really felt like I was at a funeral after having not been there for a while, looking at the old grandstand remembering from season to season the different places I watch the races and the incredible races I was able to see it from its opening until what they have now.
Unfortunately, a beautiful race track where you can enjoy handicapping and take your time can’t compete with casinos that killed it and now the lottery has its own version of slot machines in every convenience store at 50% take out in New Jersey. it is very sad but shouldn’t have been. Even the racetrack is not as enjoyable since they’ve turned it into a crap game with simulcasting and a race going off every 30 seconds it seems like. All of the farms that were built, and most of them are gone. I wonder if the drivers in a few years will know what they are living and what was. The shaking roar of the grandstand with the apron filled with people. Last time I was at the track, there was dead silence. It was like I was on a farm watching a couple horses training.
Music really sets the mood in this video. Excellent work, thank you for posting
Harness racing is a dying sport and no one is changing anything to save it. Sad…
USTA money well spent here. How about you do a better job promoting the sport instead of showing it’s decline?
Long live the Pomp !
Amazing how people would rather stay inside and throw money at a slot machine rather than getting fresh air gambling on a horse race. Harness racing Marketing did not capture the beauty of harness racing because of the race fixing issue. Cheaters damaged the sport as well as keep it alive. Weird.