John Morrissey Opens the Track at Saratoga

On August 3, 1863, John Morrissey, a former bare-knuckle heavyweight champion who had remade himself into New York's most successful gambling-house operator, staged the first organized thoroughbred race meeting at Saratoga Springs. He ran it on the old trotting grounds known as the Oklahoma Track, just a month after the Union's victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, in front of a crowd estimated at 3,000 people who watched a filly named Lizzie W., ridden by a one-eyed jockey, beat a colt called Captain Moore in a series of mile heats. The four-day trial went well enough that Morrissey bought 125 acres across the street and, with three wealthy backers, built a permanent grandstand that opened the following year as Saratoga Race Course. Morrissey later parlayed his Saratoga fortune into two terms in Congress, proof that in this state a casino boss and a sitting congressman could be the exact same guy.