Fans of horse racing and Florida history: Glenville resident Nancy Turner will sign copies of her new book, “Tampa Bay Downs: The First Hundred Years” on Friday, July 17, from 2 to 4 pm at the Highland Hiker Cabin in Highlands at 601 Main Street. Refreshments will be served.
Nancy’s handsome coffee-table book (written with former Tampa Tribune reporter Mike Henry) is a very lively look at the race track which opened in 1926. It’s full of fascinating, amazing and downright odd stories and is beautifully produced with hundreds of photos both vintage and modern. It also includes specially commissioned paintings by Christopher Still, whose murals depicting Florida History are installed in the state’s House of Representatives in Tallahassee.
Sports illustrated called Tampa Bay Downs “the Saratoga of the Swamplands” and noted the first thing the track did before opening each winter season was to shoot the alligators basking in the infield and remove the rattlers and other venomous snakes from the backstretch (though once a slithering reptile slipped through and gave a jockey a non-lethal bite in the changing rooms). NASCAR races were held on the track after WW2 and Bill France won the very first!
They’ve had horse racing in Tampa since it was Fort Brooke 200 years ago but the current track was the creation of Ransom Eli Olds of Oldsmobile fame; later owners included the Yankee’s George Steinbrenner. Today it’s owned by siblings Stella Thayer and Howell Ferguson, whose mother Louise Ferguson was a longtime summer resident of Highlands and could be spotted cheerfully making her way about town at age 100. “Tampa Bay Downs: The First Hundred Years” completes Nancy Turner’s own Triple Crown of books—her other titles, “The Summer Times: A Guide to Adventures around Highlands, Cashiers and Toxaway” and “Wings: Flying Over Highlands, Cashiers, Toxaway and Beyond” will also be available at the Highland Hiker.
