The racetrack in Bensalem was Keystone for a decade, Philadelphia Park for a quarter century. It is now Parx Racing. Even though the giant casino building on the property has been called Parx Casino since it opened in December, this will take some getting used to.
On Tuesday, one player in the South Philly Turf Club was displeased when he could not find Philadelphia Park on the self-service betting machine. It already had been changed to Parx Racing. Only nobody had told him.
"What is Par X?" another player wanted to know. "It is still a bleephouse, whether it's Keystone, Philadelphia Park, whatever."
Actually, the renovated first floor is state of the art, pleasing to the eye and functional for all of the sport's constituents - players and horsemen alike. The third floor is undergoing a massive renovation, as well. Some table games, including poker, eventually will be in the racetrack building.
But it is pretty clear the remodeling was done with racing in mind. And for fans and horsemen, who felt disenfranchised when slot machines took over the first and third floors, that is good news. Now, management needs to do something about the stable area, which clearly needs to be upgraded if the track is to be taken as seriously as the purse levels suggest it should and could be.
All the changes were made just in time for the start of the biggest month of racing in the track's history. Monday's Labor Day card is scheduled to have $1 million in purses, including the $300,000 Smarty Jones Stakes and $250,000 Turf Monster Handicap. The slots-fueled purses for all the non-stakes races will be increased 50 percent.
The $1 million Pennsylvania Derby was moved from Labor Day to Sept. 25. So Monday will be Smarty Jones Day. A statue (or at least a casting of a statue) honoring the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner will be unveiled, and a commemorative coin will be given to the first 5,000 fans. John Servis, Smarty's trainer, and Stewart Elliott, Smarty's jockey, will sign autographs.
