Hide Article Text (OCR)
— -By 1HANKExrcnfivcMiracle at Los AlamitosFourteen years ago—right after World War II— frank Vessels Sr. would have been carted off to the nearest padded room if he had suggested that, perhaps, around the ..year 1959, Los Alamitos Race Course would be the most modern horse plant in thg entire'West.Vessels built a grubby, half-mile track on his 475-acre Los Alamitos ranch site in 1946. One year later, he staged his first quarter horse racing program—with NO parimutuel wagering.Today, he has an ultra-modern, multi-million dollaroperation and is set to open his 14th meeting Monday—and, believe me, his course is one of the finest racing plants I’ve ever seen!Truly, a miracle has taken place at Los Aia-mitos. The track matches, and in many cases surpasses, the facilities offered by the West’s finest thoroughbred tracks at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park.Elsewhere oil this page, you’ll see a front view of the clubhouse and the new $2,500,000 grandstand, but that’s, only the beginning. Touring the plant. Wednesday with general manager John Beckman, this writer was astonished at the tremendous renovation that has taken place at Los Alamitos in just six months, when Vessels' spring meeting concluded.Those of us who will remember Los Alamitos' early days when the track was nothing more than a cowboy's backyard racing haven, will have to pinch ourselves to believe the transformation is real.Patterned somewhat along the lines of New York's new Aqueduct track, which is considered the absolute finest racing plant in America, Los Alamitos Race Course indeed is a sight for sore eyes.The new grandstand is magnificent. Someone remarked that it resembled a huge rainbow. A splash of colors hits the visitor at every turn. The grandstand’s, 5,000 theater-type seats are radiant In a three-color scheme—blue, green and tan.It has three levels, with four escalators available to whisk the bettors to any level. It has the latest word in modernized stairways, situated so the patron’s view of Lhe track is unobstructed.Los Alamitos boasts an almost-astonishing battery of• wagering windows—and a few cashier’s windows, too!“Please tell the people that we still have $2 windows,” cautioned Beekman, apparently worried that the talk of minimum $5 wagering might frighten off the race track's favorite patron, the $2 bettor.n ★ ★ . ★FOR THOSE interested in befween-race refreshments, Los Alamitos has catering stands galore. And below the new grandstand are situated so many offices, that for an instant I thought I was back in a minor Pentagon.The quarter horse people didn’t forget the working press, either. In place of the ramshackle press box which somehow survived all those years in the infield area, is a streamlined, overhanging press facility that also is the last word in modern design.• - '‘We’ve got everything but a shower in there,”enthused Beekman, “and maybe we'll put that in some-day.”. Members of the press need no shower, they take their bath at the mutuel windows! Anyway, Beckman, a former newspaper handicapper himself, has combined the best facilities of the press boxes at S’Anita and Hollypark for Los Alamitos.Oh, yes, Beckman’s press box has the only fire escape for newsmen in the nation. This might be gilding the lily for I’ve never known any handicappers hot enough to sel any press box afire!The photographers weren’t forgotten, either. Los Alamitos has the only race track dark room setup for news cameramen in America and also boasts a special photog rapher’s box directly above the finish line.There’s also a sun deck between the club house anc grandstand, where eventually the grandstand patron wit have his own private outdoor bar.★ ★ ★BELIEVE IT OR NOT, but Los Alamitos shortly maybecome the state's third largest track, behind only thi giants at S’Anita and Hollypark. The once tiny quarter horse track is on the verge of passing such oldtime plant as Del Mar, Tanforan, Golden , Gate Fields and Bay Meadows!Two records seem certain to be broken at this meet ing: Crowd (13,486) and handle ($790,640), both set las April 18,Los Alamitos can easily accommodate 25,000 peopli now and even its present record of 13,486 fans wouli seem lost in this tremendous plant.Los Alamitos Race Course today is fantastic—but don’t taka my word for it. You have to see it yourself ti really believe that so much has happened in so iittl time!FRANK VESSELS, SR, Man of Miracles
Newspaper Details
Press Telegram
Long Beach, California, US
Thu, Nov 19, 1959
Page 66
Full Page
Clipped by
Roshan R.
CA, USA 06 Apr 2021
Other Publications Near Long Beach, California
Independent Long Beach
Independent Press Telegram
Press Telegram
Independent
Long Beach Press Telegram
