At 3:27 p.m. on November 28, 2020, eight horses went postward at Scarborough Downs in a one-mile event for pacers with a Track Master rating of 60 or lower at the time of the draw. Two minutes and two and one-fifth seconds later, Goin Manstyle crossed the finish line in front for the second time in 14 starts this year and 27th time in 165 lifetime starts.
I first attended Scarborough Downs in June of 2015, almost exactly one year before I moved to Maine, a move that necessitated that I give up my career in thoroughbred horse racing. Having live racing nearby, even if it was bottom-level harness racing, made the transition a little easier for me.
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| Racing on opening day on March 31, 2018, opening day |
The grandstand was dilapidated, the pools were miniscule (a typical win pool might have had $300 in it), the takeout rates were confiscatory (18% WPS, 26% for all exotics), and nearly all televisions were standard definition, but those things couldn’t stop me from becoming a semi-regular patron at Scarborough Downs.
I found handicapping Scarborough’s races to be challenging, in a good way. For a half-mile harness track with purses that seldom exceeded $5,000, there were not as many odds-on winners as you might have expected, and plenty of winners came from off the pace. The driver colony was deep and I almost never found myself blaming the driver for any of my losses. An annual highlight was the retirement ceremony, held in the fall, for 14-year-old horses who had competed at Scarborough Downs.
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| Devil's Embrace N is honored during the 2018 retirement ceremony |
On a typical day, crowds consisted primarily of handicappers who were above the age of 55 and horsemen and their families. Between the grandstand and the simulcasting area of the clubhouse, there might have been 100-400 people present. A larger, younger crowd would come on Kentucky Derby Day, and later in May a large contingent of students from Bowdoin College would celebrate the end of the school year by attending a day of racing at Scarborough Downs.
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| The track apron during the summer of 2017 |
Because my area of so-called expertise was thoroughbred racing, I seldom bet more than $10 on a single race. Sometimes I would watch the pool totals on the tote board and look for horses who had been underbet in the place or show pool, and I would feel an undeserved smugness when I would find a horse who paid more to place than to win. It was a lot of work just to grind out a few dollars in profit, and my overlays were often wiped out by somebody else betting $10 into the pool. The strategy was also made more difficult by the burnt-out lightbulbs on the tote board that prevented me from knowing exactly how much had been wagered on certain horses.
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| Trotalot, my favorite horse I saw compete at Scarborough Downs, winning a free-for-all event in 2017 |
The closure of the barn area in 2016 and the selling of the track to developers in 2018 made it obvious that I needed to appreciate Scarborough Downs when I could. Those aren’t the headlines associated with a racetrack with a long, successful future ahead of it. When I attended Scarborough Downs in the spring of 2019 before moving two hours north to Bangor, I wondered if the next time I attended the track might be the last. My premonition was correct as the news broke on November 19 that the track would be offering its final day of racing at the end of the month.
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| Gonna Hear Me Rohr winning a Maine Sire Stakes event in 2018 |
I decided to take my camera, facemask, and bottle of hand sanitizer and make the two-hour drive to Scarborough so I could document the final day of racing. Because I was concerned by the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the state, I took a few brief shots inside the grandstand before spending the rest of the day outdoors, finding isolated locations on the track apron so I could have clear shots of the racetrack and remain physically distanced from other spectators. One year ago, I could have easily imagined myself documenting the final day of racing at Scarborough Downs, but I never could have anticipated the extra wrinkles caused the pandemic.
Throughout the day, I scribbled a few observations in my program. I noted that the track no longer bothered to display any win, place, or show pool totals on the tote board, which only showed the win odds. I saw weeds and moss growing from the numerous cracks in the track apron, a young boy pretending he was shooting a rifle as he held a piece of splintery wood he had pulled off a bench, and small carrot pieces that had been left on the ground following the 14-year-old retirement ceremony the previous Saturday. I heard a guttural caw and looked up and saw a raven flying over the infield in the direction of the wooded area past the track’s first turn, and I wondered if the ravens have a nesting area over there and if it’s endangered due to the looming redevelopment of the property.
Although I was on the opposite side of the country, having to adhere to COVID-19 protocols, and at a small harness track instead of a mid- or high-level thoroughbred track, the day felt eerily similar to when I attended the final day of racing at Bay Meadows and Hollywood Park. With each passing race, the atmosphere became more and more of a weird combination of celebratory and somber.
When the eight pacers emerged on the track for the final post parade and a melancholic instrumental recording of Auld Lang Syne began to play over the public address system, it took me back to August 17, 2008 when bugler David Hardiman played Auld Lang Syne as the six fillies left the walking ring at Bay Meadows prior to the Last Dance Stakes and December 22, 2013 when Jay Cohen played the same tune prior to the final race at Hollywood Park.
Throughout the card, I scouted different locations to find a suitable place to record the final race. I wanted a place where the tote board would not block my view of the horses on the backstretch and could be confident that I could maintain physical distance from the other spectators. I eventually spotted an outdoor staircase leading to the empty dining room above the clubhouse and decided that would be my filming location. With approximately four minutes left to post, I climbed the metal stairs and looked over the track. I looked north and saw where the harness track turns for home and where the old one-mile thoroughbred track (last used in 1972) continued. I saw the wooded area to the east, behind the backstretch. I saw eight horses making their warm ups before the starting gate began to roll for the final time.
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| The crowd awaiting the final race ever at Scarborough Downs |
The race itself was exciting, with veteran driver Wallace Watson deftly guiding Goin Manstyle to a second-over trip before tipping his 10-year-old charge three wide on the final turn. After Goin Manstyle overtook Oh Whata Nightjohn and Moonshine Bliss in midstretch, Watson leaned back in the sulky and raised his whip in triumph like he had just won the Little Brown Jug.
Because I’m “from away,” I will not try to provide any sort of comprehensive history of Scarborough Downs and instead will leave that task to the locals. I will venture to say that the track was a victim of changing demographics and consumer preferences and competition from the casino in Oxford. Because the greater Portland area real estate market is so hot, it certainly makes sense that a harness track that in 2015 (the last year numbers were available on meharness.com) handled $2,337 per race would give way to condominiums and offices. Still, I feel compelled to mourn the loss of Scarborough Downs, which until the very end meant so much to its patrons, horsemen, and employees.
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| Driver Walter Case, Jr. (second from right) moments before winning his first race during his brief comeback bid in the fall of 2017 |
