Let's Go To The Races was a syndicated short-season series that aired pre-recorded races from thoroughbred tracks in Florida during the 70's.
Depending on where you lived, the show was sponsored by a prominent supermarket chain. In New York, that would be Grand Union. In parts of the midwest, as you'll see in the sample episode below, it was Hy-Vee. The stores had game tickets that were available in different colors and numbers during the 13 week season.
It was this series that started my own interest in horse racing. As a fan, mind you, more than a player.
New York viewers saw races from the now-defunct Tropical Park, with veteran sportscaster Jack Drees calling the races, actually dubbing over the original race calls. Same thing here, but the action is at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, now better known for the Florida Derby, among other winter season races.
Unfortunately, the tapes of the Tropical Park races have been lost, so we had to make do.
Rating: B.
Hy-Vee was not a Chicago chain.
ReplyDeleteAs a lifelong Chicagoan, I can say this for certain; if my own memory serves, Let's Go To The Races was sponsored in Chicago by the Jewel chain.
I did look Hy-Vee up on WikiPedia; it was - and still is - based in Iowa, so any of its stores in Illinois would likely be in the Quad Cities area.
I did recognize Phil Georgeff, who was Chicago's favorite race caller for many years ("Spinning out of the turn, entering the stretch!!"), but you're right about the producers laying his voice-over on out-of-state races.
KGAN-TV, which gets credit for the facilities, is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, so that's probably where the tape came from.
Thanks for the info, Mike.
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea for a show. With all the grocery store sponsored promotions/contests done by professional or college sports teams in recent years, I wonder if a show like this would work now?
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I would make a change to the show if it came back now. Maybe slightly change it to feature races from tracks that correspond to the part of the country that the series is airing in.
To use an example, where I live(Seattle-Tacoma) you could have a local Seattle area grocery store chain sponsor(like Safeway or Fred Meyer) and races from Emerald Downs(which is the major horse racing track in the Seattle area).
In this day & age, I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteThat's right, HyVee is in Iowa. The example shown here is the version of the show that I saw in Iowa back in the day.
ReplyDeleteA man named Brian Clark hosted this in my area. My sister and I always thought he reminded us of Ronald Reagan. Ironically, he played President Reagan in an HBO movie about James Brady!!
ReplyDeleteIt was on Ch 9 in NH sponsored by Grand Union and did indeed have Bryan Clark who, according to Internet Movie Database, did several projects portraying Reagab due to the resemblance.
ReplyDeleteClark also appeared in "Trading Places" and shilled for Folgers Coffee in the 80's.
ReplyDelete@Femme Artiste: Thank you for clarification.
Sponsored by Winn-Dixie in South Carolina; i swear i remember the track being ID'd as "Fabulous FLagler" in Miami - i just looked and that's apparently a dog track these days
ReplyDeleteAlso, i have to question the 1970s date - unless there were multiple airings, because i remember watching it with the family before i joined the Navy, which i did in 1967.
ReplyDeleteIn Sioux City, IA it was Sunshine Supermarket...
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, I played this thing religiously in the Richmond, VA suburbs (Big Star was the sponsor). Everybody I knew who played won at least 2 dollars at some time or another. Me, NOTHING!! EVER!!
ReplyDeleteIn Philly it was affiliated with Penn Fruit.
ReplyDeleteIn this area, Central New New York, the chain was P&C. We loved watching and each week, the scratch off card had a different color.
ReplyDeleteI'm Old enough too remember This (promotion) your "receipt" was your ticket.. It was "sponsored" by *Big Star* Grocery stores here in N.C.
ReplyDeleteIt's been over two years, but.....!
ReplyDelete@Mike Weber: Do you remember exactly when the series launched? My research didn't come up with a definitive date, and I only remember seeing it in the 70's.
we had it here in Texas also and it was Piggly Wiggly and like the guy who joined the navy i did not move to dallas till 1968 and it was 69 or 70 im thinking since TV back then was tape delay they could have passed it around for a few years there really was no national TV each area had its own set of programs plus here it said tape delay that is how they knew what #'s to print out so everyone WON
ReplyDeleteok we had same thing here in Texas except the races cane from England and they were steeple chase jumping hedge rows and stuff thanks for sharing the youtube link
ReplyDeleteI remember when Let's Go to the Races aired in Minneapolis. The show was sponsored by Super Valu and I still remember the opening.
ReplyDeleteLet's go for action.
Let's go for excitement.
Let's go to the Races.