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Final Bay Meadows season ends Sunday At about 4:45 p.m. (PDT) on Sunday, an era in California racing history will come to an end, as the last race of the final Bay Meadows meet will go off. The 74-year-old facility will enjoy one last hurrah by hosting the San Mateo County Fair for nearly two weeks in August. When the fair closes, plans call for the Bay Meadows property to be developed into residential, retail and office space. The $55,000 Mother's Day H. holds the distinction of being the final stakes race held under the auspices of a regular Bay Meadows season. Appropriately, perennial Northern California supremo Jerry Hollendorfer will be represented by a triumvirate in the 1 1/16-mile turf test. UNSPOKEN WORD (Catienus), who just held on in the Hillsborough H. over this course two back, ranks as the 119-pound highweight. Most recently fifth in the Wilshire H. (G3) at Hollywood Park, Unspoken Word will be guided by fellow Northern California institution Russell Baze. Joining in the fray are her uncoupled stablemates ANDOVER THE CASH (Unusual Heat), who was third in the Hillsborough, and ROCKELLA (Tribal Rule), successful in the Palo Alto S. here last September. Other intriguing sorts in the eight-distaffer field are Hillsborough near-misser WILD PROMISES (Wild Event), who hails from the barn of Greg Gilchrist, and Brazilian Group 3 star GREETINGS (Brz) (Choctaw Ridge), a sharp allowance/optional claiming winner at Santa Anita for Paulo Lobo. Bay Meadows owed its existence as a racetrack to William P. Kyne. In the wake of his tireless efforts, pari-mutuel wagering was legalized in California in 1933, and Kyne set his sights on building a new racing facility. To this end, he purchased the old Curtiss-Wright airfield on the south side of San Mateo, California. The ground-breaking took place on April 8, 1934, and the track celebrated its opening day on November 3 of that year, with 15,000 patrons in attendance. It was named Bay Meadows because the land had once been a meadow, and it was near San Francisco Bay. Kyne's work was not yet finished. When the United States was embroiled in World War II, Bay Meadows and all of the other West Coast tracks were ordered to close. Kyne persuaded the authorities to allow Bay Meadows to remain open, but only by agreeing to a series of stipulations, including handing over 92 percent of its profits to the war effort. Because of wartime gas and rubber rationing, fans were not allowed to travel by car or bus to the track, relying instead on horse- and mule-drawn wagons. Bay Meadows played an important role on the home front by supporting war bond drives and entertaining the troops, among other initiatives. As a result of its operation during the war years, Bay Meadows is the longest continuously operating racetrack in California. Bay Meadows is notable in racing history in other respects as well. It was the first track to employ the Puett electric starting gate, and the first track in California to implement the totalizator system, photo-finish camera, the daily double and nighttime racing. In 1945, El Lobo became the first horse to be transported by air to a racetrack, taking off from Los Angeles and landing in the Bay Meadows parking lot. The next day, El Lobo captured the Inaugural H. Many of the sport's leading lights graced the stage at Bay Meadows -- the legendary Seabiscuit, who won the Bay Meadows H. in 1937 and 1938; 1948 Triple Crown conqueror Citation and his Calumet stablemate Coaltown; Citation's nemesis, *Noor; Round Table; Native Diver; Majestic Prince; John Henry; Lady's Secret; Cigar; and the ill-fated Lost in the Fog. Two of the world's winningest jockeys have strong ties to Bay Meadows. Hall of Famer Bill Shoemaker began his career galloping horses at this venue, and he won his first stakes races here in 1949. Baze was responsible for one of the landmark moments in Bay Meadows history. On December 1, 2006, he earned his 9,531st career victory when piloting Butterfly Belle (Wavering Monarch) to a 2 1/4-length tally in the 4TH race. In the process, Baze surpassed Laffit Pincay Jr. as North America's all-time winningest rider. Now boasting more than 10,000 career victories, Baze will try to contribute to the final chapter of the Bay Meadows story, with mounts in eight of the nine races on the card.
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