A little awash in sentimental memory today, Fat Tuesday, a day on which racing was always conducted at the Fair Grounds.

Fair Grounds is second or third oldest throughbred track in the US, having had its first established meet in the 1860s.

From a personal perspective, FG was probably the first track I attended the races at and certainly the first backstretch I ever worked on. I remember the FG backstretch as a great melting pot, with a lot of native NO trainers, the Cajun trainers from outstate Louisiana, and trainers from other racing jurisdictions such as JP Conway from New York and Bud Delp and Henry Clark from Maryland, some Detroit trainers (notably Angel Barrera, one of Laz Barrera's brothers) and a young Bill Mott by way of Kentucky.

I remember playing touch football with young Dallas Stewart, who at the time was a valet/ exercise rider, and a quiet, serious young man named Tony Reinstedler who was grooming horses for a Chicago outfit.

Bud Delp started going to the Fair Grounds right after Spectacular Bid's run. He had horses for the Meyerhoffs and also Windfields Farm of Northern Dancer fame. He had quite a few high priced maiden fillies for Windfields, many of whom were retired immediately for breeding after breaking their maidens.

Delp rented a house in New Orleans for his son Gerald, Ronnie Franklin, and some of the Delp exercise riders... think a southern version of "Animal House". Delp also infuriated some of the smaller scaled trainers because he had "draw day" for his help on Thursdays, a day when he would make available a payroll advance; a lot of the smaller scaled trainers had a difficult enough time meeting the pay-
roll one time a week.

Of course there were betting coups, and the greatest one to my memory involved 2 very well known figures at the Fair Grounds -- Frankie Brothers' great sprinter Bayou Black and the legendary vet, Doc Harthill.

Bayou Black, at 6 furlongs, was simply too fast for any of the sprinters in that part of the country at the time, and Frank Brothers at the time was leading trainer at the Fair Grounds year after year. I think in this particular race, a small overnight stake, Bayou Black was prepping for the big sprint at the meet, maybe the Pelleteri Hcp, and he was 1/5 if not 1/9 in a short field that he laid over on paper.

And of course Bayou Black was beaten. Beaten by Bracadale, an English horse who may have had one previous start on the main track. Bracadale paid what $150.00, $180.00 to win, but thats OK because I seem to recall that the standard win wager at that time at the FG was $3. I remember being near the winners circle after that race. Bracadale's young English trainer, an attractive woman by the name of Sophie Clark as I recall, was literally speechless.

Upon further review, it turned out that Bracadale was stabled in the infamous Harthill barn, home of countless veterinary miracles. The more cynical among us concluded that young Sophie, as well as Bracadale, had received a series of injections from Doc Harthill.

But I digress, as usual. I guess it is narrow minded to lament the loss of a racetrack when the entire City of New Orleans may never be rebuilt, but Fair Grounds will always be special to me because it was my first experience on the backstretch (hotwalker, $90 per week, my bed a few feed sacks thrown together with a horse blanket thrown over them). With apologies to John Prine, I note that NO and the Fair Grounds are "often remembered, so many times that the memories are worn".