GHOST, GUMBO and HURRICANES
Gary
McMillen
Hot, dark and spicy---look into a bowl of gumbo and see
the reflection of the city of New Orleans. Throw the recipe
out the window. Empty the freezer. The key to a good pot of
gumbo is lots of different ingredients. Chicken, crabs,
okra, cayenne pepper, oysters, smoked sausage and shrimp:
stir it all up and serve over rice.
People call New Orleans “Big Easy.” Maybe it’s because
nobody really takes themselves too seriously. Maybe it’s
because the pace of life is slow and close to the simple
things of life like drinking a cold beer or dancing in a
street parade. From an original swamp settlement of
French, African and Spanish bloodlines, the “city that
care forgot” is now a bubbling mixture of Irish,
Italian, Vietnamese, Palestinians, Chinese, Cajuns,
Chinese, Creoles, Mexicans and Cubans that, if they hear
a brass band, will start waving their handkerchiefs and
throwing Mardi Gras beads.
Ingrained in the mixed up crawfish DNA of New Orleans is
the Fair Grounds race track. So much is the race track a
part of the pulse of the city that an unconscious
reference to Thanksgiving often comes out as “Opening
Day.” Call it tradition. Forget the turkey and cranberry
sauce, the real deal is “Who do you like in the Daily
Double?” After a brief prayer with family at the dinner
table followed by some thinly disguised excuses, the
hard core Fair Grounds regular makes post time for the
first race with corn bread dressing still on his chin.
The history of the Fair Grounds is deep as the Gulf of
Mexico. Only two other tracks (Saratoga and Pimlico) in
the United States have older birth certificates. April
13, 1872 was the inaugural day of racing at Fair
Grounds. The programs were printed on silk cloth and
General George Armstrong Custer’s Frogtown ran second in
the feature heat. Confiscated from the Confederate
cavalry, Custer operated a stable of 40 thoroughbreds at
Fair Grounds before shipping out to the Little Big Horn
in South Dakota.
Over the decades, good and great horses have come
galloping down the long Fair Grounds stretch. Black Gold
(winner of the 1924 Kentucky Derby) and Pan Zareta
(legendary mare and winner of 78 races) are buried in
the infield. Triple Crown winners Citation and Whirlaway
were under silks at Fair Grounds. Kentucky Derby winners
Lil E Tee and War Emblem spent their entire winter at
the Gentilly oval. John Henry made nine un-remarkable
starts at the Fair Grounds, while bankrolling $2,663.
The courageous gelding would go forward to Horse of the
Year honors in 1981 and 1984. The filly Rachel Alexandra
(Horse of the Year in 2009) is currently in training at
the Fair Grounds for her upcoming “race of the ages”
showdown with Zenyatta in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom
Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
Stand and deliver. What doesn’t kill you makes you
stronger. On the night of December 17, 1993, a seven
alarm fire destroyed the Fair Grounds grandstand. With
the fire trucks still in the parking lot, owner Bryan
Krantz met with his executive staff, sketching out the
strategy of recovery on a piece of poster board
illuminated by hand-held flashlights. “We felt some
loyalty to the employees and to the horsemen that we
re-constitute a live meet as immediate as possible,”
Krants recalled. After a round the clock effort to erect
temporary facilities (tents), racing resumed in 19 days.
The next sucker punch to put the Fair Grounds down for a
mandatory eight count was Hurricane Katrina. With the
barns and property under flood waters for two weeks and
the roof blown off the grandstand/clubhouse, the meet
was moved to Louisiana Downs in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Home sweet home. The current corporate owned and
operated Fair Grounds facility is new, modern and clean.
Too bad, because the anti-septic atmosphere of the
building is out of sync with the culture of down and
dirty misfits that once roamed the grandstand. In honor
of that gallery of ghosts that gave Fair Grounds a
special character, what follows is a roll call of
renegades.
There was Q-Ball, the pool hustler from the Irish
Channel that brought his stick with him to the track
kitchen so he could run the table on un-suspecting
trainers from Chicago, who thought they had a game.
There was “Rabbit,” the quiet and polite press-box
custodian that (as a groom) had ridden in a box car with
Seabiscuit. There was the covenant of nuns from The
Little Sisters of the Poor. For a promised tithe of the
winning purse from Louie Roussel III, the obedient nuns
did novenas in the clubhouse before Risen Star’s victory
in the 1988 Louisiana Derby.
Never politically correct, there was the legendary and
superstitious “Black Cat” Lacombe, who was the Fair
Grounds publicity director. “Black Cat” wore one brown
shoe and one black shoe on days that he had a “sure
thing.” There was the seductive “Toong” (a Korean girl
that shucked oysters in the clubhouse). If Toong liked
you then she kept opening them until you told her to
stop. With a smile and wink, it was all at the same low
price. “Miss Dorothy” worked at “The Grill” on the
rickety third floor of the wooden grandstand. Miss
Dorothy’s special customers got extra gravy and hot
mustard on their corn beef sandwich along with a “Good
luck, Sweetie,” send off.
Continued
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