Fair Grounds, Birmingham Illustrate Changing Attitudes Toward Racing

There are not a lot of similarities between Fair Grounds and Birmingham Race Courses today, but the history of the two tracks illustrate changing attitudes about horse racing, gambling, and their places in society.

Fair Grounds in New Orleans opened in 1852 as Union Race Course, and like many 19^th and turn-of-the-century tracks—think Churchill, Oaklawn, and Pimlico—was built as a part of its neighborhood. The only existing horse racing sites older than Fair Grounds are Saratoga Race Course in Upstate New York and Freehold Raceway in New Jersey.

Birmingham in Central Alabama opened in 1987 and was so far out of the city at that time, they were able to name streets after the project’s benefactors. The development was meant to showcase racing in the South, but there was also clearly some NIMBY (not in my backyard) politics in play.