Garden State Park is to be torn down, but New Jersey racing's golden age ended 25 years ago

So this is how it ends, this ill-conceived rebuilding of Garden State Park in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Garden State need not have ended this way, at the wrong end of a wrecking ball, but the egomaniacal way in which it rose from the ashes ensured that it would again fall.

Is this judgment 20-20 hindsight? No, the signs were evident from the moment the rebuilt Garden State Park opened its doors on April 1, 1985. It was a white elephant from day one. That it survived this long is a testament only to the dedicated people who labored within its fences for the last 15 years.

In fact, New Jersey racing had changed irretrievably before that warm mid-April day in 1977 when the old Garden State Park burned to the ground.

The New Jersey circuit in the 1960s was solely Florida-New Jersey, with trainers departing the Sunshine State in April for Garden State, then moving to Monmouth Park in late May, to Atlantic City Race Course in early August, and back to Garden State in October for a fall meeting before the railway cars and vans left for Florida for the winter.

Liberty Bell Park opened across the river in Philadelphia in the late 1960s, and its Thoroughbred dates moved up the road to Keystone Race Track in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, in 1974. Garden State's owner, Eugene Mori Sr., chose to fight a war of attrition, running four of the five months in the winter and spring, against Keystone. Both tracks bled red ink, and only the fire ended the bloodletting.

Further change in New Jersey racing began on Labor Day 1976, when the Meadowlands opened its first Standardbred meeting. Built and operated by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, the Meadowlands became the most successful harness venue in the sport's history, and its bountiful revenues paid for Giants Stadium and Meadowlands Arena.

At about that time, a controversial penny-stock dealer, Robert E. Brennan, was entering Thoroughbred racing as an owner. His ambitions knew no bounds, and he created a company, International Thoroughbred Breeders Inc., that began the process of rebuilding Garden State in 1982.

A modest Garden State very well could have been a success, particularly after Atlantic City Race Course initiated intrastate full-card simulcasting in the early 1980s. But Brennan needed an edifice that matched his ego. The result was a track modeled on the Meadowlands and largely built by Meadowlands personnel that Brennan had poached.

The resplendent new Garden State had many strikes against it. First, it was in South Jersey, not the heavily populated Northern New Jersey area, a few miles from Manhattan, that supported the Meadowlands. Moreover, the Philadelphia region lacked the ingrained horse racing culture found in metropolitan New York. Second, the new Garden State cost too much. Although track officials admitted to a $160-million price tag, Garden State executives privately said the cost was closer to $200-million. Brennan, who was featured in his First Jersey Securities television advertisements touting investments in high-risk "emerging growth companies," had bigger visions. After engaging in a protracted battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission over his firm's sales tactics, Brennan developed political ambitions, and it was well known at Garden State that the track was part of his quest for a United States Senate seat.

He soon abandoned those ambitions and never ran for office. (Incidentally, he lost the securities case, filed for bankruptcy, and now has been charged with bankruptcy fraud for allegedly trying to hide assets.)

Brennan bought out his competition, Keystone, at a hefty premium-all with money from his unsophisticated investors-and opened Garden State. Almost nothing went right on opening night, and failed elevators and other inconveniences turned off potential new fans. Many veteran bettors were turned off by the track's glitz, which made them feel unwelcome. The Thoroughbred meet failed to meet expectations, the harness meet was worse, and Garden State declined toward its inevitable demise.

While Garden State will become an upscale townhouse community, Thoroughbred racing fans in South Jersey deserve a place to play the sport. New Jersey's tracks and horsemen must cut a deal, compromising on racing dates and simulcasting splits, and gain legislative approval of off-track betting legislation and phone wagering.