Batavia, NY – When the horses go behind the gate at 8:20 p.m. for the eighth race at Batavia Downs on Saturday (Sept. 20), it will mark 85-years to the minute that big-time pari-mutuel harness racing under the lights began at the facility and changed the fortunes of the City of Batavia, its residents, and the many people who have made a living racing Standardbred horses there ever since.
Harness racing was nothing new to the area at that time, as formal meets had been held as part of the Genesee County Fair going back to the 1800s. And that includes racing at the same site that eventually became Batavia Downs. But its evolution to this next-level form of entertainment that was sweeping North America in the 1940s and ’50s, brought the track from a dusty back-roads “bull ring” to the forefront of the industry as a pioneer, innovator and multi-generational venue that has kept the sport thriving to this very day.
When pari-mutuel wagering was first legalized in New York State in 1939, a local sports promoter named William Goldberg petitioned for a license to open a racetrack and was granted the same before the end of the year. Batavia was chosen as the location because it was midway between the state’s second- and third-largest cities (at the time), Buffalo and Rochester, and there was a viable racing strip already in place at the Genesee County fairgrounds.
After a lease to run a meet at the fair was signed, upgrades to the grounds were made including lighting and resurfacing the track and erecting betting booths to facilitate pari-mutuel betting.
There was a large and enthusiastic crowd on hand for that first program on Sept. 20, 1940, and a pacer named Rip Harvester “scorched” the oval in 2:14.1 for driver Bill Harvey. But after the hoopla of the grand opening waned, the growing pains for the track were just getting started.
The early years were far from successful as there were a lot of other things going on in society at the time, including World War II, which forced the track to close in 1942 and 1943. But that trajectory would change dramatically over the next several years and would vault the track to success no one ever imagined.
First, in 1944, a former state assemblyman named Pat Provenzano became a large stakeholder in the project. Then in 1945 the war ended and in 1947, Provenzano and his partners purchased the 100-acre fairgrounds from the agricultural society and that is when things started to change.
The post-war era saw large numbers of soldiers coming back home and having no trouble finding jobs. So, there were a lot of people looking for entertainment after work and they had a lot of money to spend on it. That’s when the nighttime harness racing boom began in America as many other tracks had opened across the country by this time including Roosevelt Raceway on Long Island, which also began operations in 1940, on Monday, Sept. 2, just 18-days before Batavia.
Provenzano was the force that put Batavia Downs over the top. His political influence and ability to secure financial backing saw the track’s operations grow exponentially year after year. That growth included major improvements to, and multiple expansions of, the grandstands, clubhouse, barn area, parking lots, grooms’ quarters and trailer park. It also included improvements to food and drink options and made the experience more upscale for those who wanted it by adding a dress code to the fine dining areas.
The track introduced the Batavia Colt and Filly Stake for 2- and 3-year-olds in 1952 that became a very popular series to all horsemen. It pre-dated the New York Sire Stakes by a decade and may very well have been the model for that series when it started. These stakes were responsible for drawing many top-rated horses from outside of the area, and their connections realized what a great place this was to race and came back regularly.
Batavia Downs was now a first-class venue, and it drew horses and their owners, trainers and drivers from states all over the northeast as well as Ontario, Canada, making the racing product second to none. All-time great horses like Proximity, Good Time, Bye Bye Byrd, Bret Hanover, Cardigan Bay, Su Mac Lad, Albatross and Niatross, along with top drivers including Clint Hodgins, Frank Ervin, Vic Fleming, Levi Harner, Del Miller, Stanley Dancer, Billy Haughton, Herve Filion, Buddy Gilmour, John Chapman and Clint Galbraith, all competed regularly over the storied Genesee County oval during the golden era. And all the horses and drivers just mentioned are now members of the Harness Racing Hall of Fame.
The track started to draw hundreds of thousands of people each year, who pushed untold-millions of dollars through the windows annually. And the portion of those funds returned to the local economy via taxes was only a small part of the economic driver that Batavia Downs became.
Because the track operated at night, it provided the opportunity for a second career for local residents since it opened and helped the middle class grow quickly there as a result. Many worked there for 20, 30, even 40 years and that supplemental income helped to buy cars, homes and finance college for a large number of families who may not have been able to do so otherwise.
The track’s financial impact helped the City of Batavia to grow year after year and made it one of the highest ranked Micropolitan areas in the United States, reaching #2 on the list in 2018 according to Site Selection Magazine. In the most recent survey, Batavia still ranks 17th among the top 100.
From 1940 to 1996, Batavia Downs was able to successfully navigate through the turbulent waters of World War II right after they opened, a devastating barn fire in 1962, the introduction of off-track wagering in the 1970s, a national recession and inflation in the 1980s and a growing number of alternative entertainment and sports options into the 1990s, and came through on top against all the odds.
The economic situation of the 1980s did spell the end for the pioneer track, Roosevelt Raceway, which closed its doors for good on June 15, 1988. As they commenced nocturnal operations just prior to Batavia in 1940, their closing left Batavia Downs as the oldest lighted harness track in North America, which is a moniker that everyone associated with The Downs speaks very proudly of.
Adversity finally did catch up with Batavia Downs in 1997, when the track closed due to financial troubles, and then was denied a New York State license to operate in 1998 for the same reason. But it wouldn’t be long before new ownership would breathe fresh life into the aging plant and turn it back into the centerpiece of the community it had been for six decades.
In 1998, Western Regional Off Track Betting purchased Batavia Downs for $2.48 million and after four years of prep and renovations, the track reopened for live harness racing in 2002. Three years later, 600 video gaming machines were added to the new gaming facility on the second floor of the grandstand. That was expanded to 800 machines in 2013 in a new gaming area with restaurants on the main floor, where it is still located today. Then in 2016, an on-site hotel was built and became the final piece to making Batavia Downs Gaming the area’s largest entertainment destination.
Since its renaissance under Western Regional Off Track Betting ownership, Batavia Downs has once again become the economic driver it had been for so many years prior. It is one of largest employers in Genesee County and annually returns multi-millions of dollars to the local communities as a public benefit corporation, and also supports numerous charitable organizations through generous contributions made to worthy causes across Western New York every year.
After a retrospective gaze at the 85-years since the first race went to post under the lights at a remote half-mile oval just off Main Street in a small town in upstate New York, it becomes crystal clear that Batavia Downs has been an integral thread in the fabric of the lives and livelihoods of generations of residents of the City of Batavia and Genesee County and the countless number of horsemen and horsewomen who raced there, and remains so maybe more than ever today.