Rillito Park
Mar 13, 2016 18:01:16 GMT -5
Post by cait on Mar 13, 2016 18:01:16 GMT -5
ok - who plays this track?! xb now taking it - interesting controversy there - the track was willed to the county for RACING! but the county tore down barns to build 3 soccer fields and is now being sued - maybe they can covert them to polo fields?!
Kicking out history at Rillito Park?
Written By Domenica Fuller
KVOA
A former Pima County Supervisor is filing a claim against Pima County after he said the creation of new soccer fields in Rillito Park is just a move to make more money.
A former Pima County Supervisor is filing a claim against Pima County after he said the creation of new soccer fields in Rillito Park is just a move to make more money.
TUCSON - Former Pima County Supervisor, Ed Moore, is filing a claim against Pima County over tearing down the horse stables at Rillito Park. Moore claims using the land for soccer fields is a misuse of tax dollars and the stables are a part of Tucson history.
"[Soccer leagues] are using taxpayer owned property at far below the taxpayer cost to charge families to have their kids trained," said Moore, "Thousands of people in Pima County make money in the horse industry. Terminate this race track and you terminate the entire fair circuit in all of Arizona."
However, the soccer community believes Rillito's central location is ideal for kids in Tucson.
"[If] there is a regular [kid] living near Rillito that doesn't have anyone to take him to practice. He won't play sports and will just sit at home and watch television," said Ted Schmidt, president of the Tucson Soccer Academy, "Allow those who are interested in gambling and horses to have a place to do that, but allow the most important priority our kids to in fact come first."
Pima County is installing an estimated $2.24 million dollars worth of improvements at Rillito Park. There will be new lighting, 3 new soccer fields, and new parking lots.
History of Rillito Park
In 1953, Rillito Park in Tucson – then known as the finest Quarter Horse track in the country – added a five-eighth-mile oval to accommodate Thoroughbred racing. Over time, many nationally and internationally renowned Thoroughbred greats started out at Rillito, with multiple KY-Derby winner and Hall-of-Fame trainer Bob Baffert and the jockey brothers Angel and Milo Valenzuela the most famous among them.
Initially called Rillito Downs Racetrack, the facility served as experimentation field for original owners J. Rukin Jelks and Melvin H. Haskell. It was the first to offer a three-eighth-mile straightaway, a layout that later became known as the “chute-system,” creating a standard for modern-day Quarter Horse racing.
Another innovation to become the standard for the entire industry
world-wide also originated at Rillito: Jelks and Haskell were the
first to use an photo-electric timer system by combining a high-
speed clock with a movie camera at the finish line, thus creating
the method of photo-finish to determine the winners of each race.
In addition, Haskell also experimented with grading races, weighted handicaps,
futurities, derbies and stakes races, and all these concepts would greatly influence the entire world of horse racing. Honoring these achievements in 1996, the American Quarter Horse Association dedicated a Historical Marker to Rillito Park.
These significant contributions to the development of Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred
racing inspired two non-profit organizations, the Pima County Horsemen’s Association, and Save Historic Rillito Race Track, to pursue the site’s introduction into the National Register of Historic Places. In November 2011, Rillito Park’s application has been accepted and now awaits approval by the National Historic Society.
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Kicking out history at Rillito Park?
Written By Domenica Fuller
KVOA
A former Pima County Supervisor is filing a claim against Pima County after he said the creation of new soccer fields in Rillito Park is just a move to make more money.
A former Pima County Supervisor is filing a claim against Pima County after he said the creation of new soccer fields in Rillito Park is just a move to make more money.
TUCSON - Former Pima County Supervisor, Ed Moore, is filing a claim against Pima County over tearing down the horse stables at Rillito Park. Moore claims using the land for soccer fields is a misuse of tax dollars and the stables are a part of Tucson history.
"[Soccer leagues] are using taxpayer owned property at far below the taxpayer cost to charge families to have their kids trained," said Moore, "Thousands of people in Pima County make money in the horse industry. Terminate this race track and you terminate the entire fair circuit in all of Arizona."
However, the soccer community believes Rillito's central location is ideal for kids in Tucson.
"[If] there is a regular [kid] living near Rillito that doesn't have anyone to take him to practice. He won't play sports and will just sit at home and watch television," said Ted Schmidt, president of the Tucson Soccer Academy, "Allow those who are interested in gambling and horses to have a place to do that, but allow the most important priority our kids to in fact come first."
Pima County is installing an estimated $2.24 million dollars worth of improvements at Rillito Park. There will be new lighting, 3 new soccer fields, and new parking lots.
History of Rillito Park
In 1953, Rillito Park in Tucson – then known as the finest Quarter Horse track in the country – added a five-eighth-mile oval to accommodate Thoroughbred racing. Over time, many nationally and internationally renowned Thoroughbred greats started out at Rillito, with multiple KY-Derby winner and Hall-of-Fame trainer Bob Baffert and the jockey brothers Angel and Milo Valenzuela the most famous among them.
Initially called Rillito Downs Racetrack, the facility served as experimentation field for original owners J. Rukin Jelks and Melvin H. Haskell. It was the first to offer a three-eighth-mile straightaway, a layout that later became known as the “chute-system,” creating a standard for modern-day Quarter Horse racing.
Another innovation to become the standard for the entire industry
world-wide also originated at Rillito: Jelks and Haskell were the
first to use an photo-electric timer system by combining a high-
speed clock with a movie camera at the finish line, thus creating
the method of photo-finish to determine the winners of each race.
In addition, Haskell also experimented with grading races, weighted handicaps,
futurities, derbies and stakes races, and all these concepts would greatly influence the entire world of horse racing. Honoring these achievements in 1996, the American Quarter Horse Association dedicated a Historical Marker to Rillito Park.
These significant contributions to the development of Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred
racing inspired two non-profit organizations, the Pima County Horsemen’s Association, and Save Historic Rillito Race Track, to pursue the site’s introduction into the National Register of Historic Places. In November 2011, Rillito Park’s application has been accepted and now awaits approval by the National Historic Society.
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