The second racing reality check I got on my honeymoon/family history trip to Poland in October of this year (2001) was filled with a lot of things that made Nancy and myself especially thankful for what we have here in the U.S.

One of my constant complaints is that American tracks, even with spiffy Internet websites, seem to rarely do an adequate job of supplying timely scratch and change information on the day of the races. After my visit to Sluzewiec Racecourse, about 20 miles southwest of Warsaw, Poland, I may not grumble as much ever again.

Thinking that we might go to the races on Saturday (Breeders Cup Day in the U.S.; post time at Belmont would not be until about 10 pm that night, long after the track would be closed, so there was no way we could even watch the BC races where we were), we asked the hotel concierge on Wednesday if she could find out if the track was still open for the season (earlier attempts by me on the Internet proved fruitless). I knew it would be a challenge when she expressed surprise that there WAS a racetrack in Warsaw. Quick checks with other hotel employees generated a lot of conversation among employees as to whether or not one really did exist.

Reality check # 1: at least in the U.S., most people know that there IS a racetrack in their city, if there is one! 

There was no consensus. I suggested they simply check the phone book, which resulted in confirmation, yes, there was a track, but since the phone went unanswered, was it running?

Reality check # 2: just like in the U.S., foreign tracks don't seem to grasp the concept of providing players with accessible information 100% of the time.

I let the matter slide until Friday, more or less repeated the same routine with a different concierge, and she got through to the track office, where someone ascertained that there WAS racing, and which days they ran apparently varied from week to week, depending on weather and the condition of the course. 1 pm local post time, 8 races, and take a taxi because there's no convenient public transportation that actually goes into the race grounds, which are well off the street.

We arrived in beautiful sunshine and mild weather and were pleasantly surprised  to find a fairly modern-looking building and a walking ring accessible by just walking  over to it! No admission gate--or charge! No charge to enter either the grandstand or clubhouse. Programs, which very loosely resemble smallish harness programs, cost about 75 cents.

The facilities were a mixture of surprisingly beautiful, well-organized racing and archaic practices that have probably remained in place for years. The walking ring  was pretty and well-manicured, located between the jockey quarters and the paddock/test barn, and on the parking lot side of the grounds. The horses had only a short way to walk past the side of the clubhouse to the track.

Inside, the clubhouse was as classy as a dingy beer joint. Tired, identical, old snack bars at one end of each floor offering plenty of booze (Poles are big into beer and vodka) and pre-packaged food that made one lust for American vending machines. Nancy and I opted for barbequed Polish sausage at the stand of an independent vendor between the clubhouse and the grandstand, who was smart enough to know that great-smelling food on a summer-like afternoon was what would sell. And at $3 for BOTH of us, it was more than delicious.

I must mention that in the area we were in, there were probably two or three hundred fans---all men, and all easily 45 or older. Nancy was one of 3---count 'em---3, women in the whole place! Racing in Poland is obviously either not marketed to women or not even remotely of interest to women in that culture. 

As you can see in the pictures that I've put on separate pages so they'll load separately and faster for you (listed at the bottom of this article), the track itself is simply BEAUTIFUL! It is one of the widest racetracks I've seen anywhere and better maintained than many tracks. Turf, of course, no dirt, and no lake in the infield, which was immaculate as well, with hedges and fences for steeplechase races, although there were none the day we were there.

The post parade is short, as the horses mainly walk across the main track into the infield and are then galloped across and around the infield, past the jumps and trees and over to the back side, which is a long ways away if you don't have binoculars. After watching the first race, it finally dawned on me: there was no tote board in the infield, there was no visible wire across the official finish line, and there was no winner's circle! And the finish line was far down the track, almost into what we'd call the clubhouse turn! No way for a railbird to hang on the fence to call a photo finish the right way.

The only tote board in the place was on the clubhouse side, which we stayed at for the afternoon, and resembled a small electronic billboard, above one side of the walking ring. If you wanted to check odds, you had to go inside to any of the three levels of the clubhouse and look at the ONE black and white monitor on each floor, which featured screens that flipped to one of about seven screens in sequence, including the results of the previous race---which took two screens to show, one after the other.

Reality check, indeed!

They did show the running of the race with one replay, and the camera work was adequate enough, including a decent finish line shot.

After a race was over, the jockeys would ride the horses out as they do on this side of the world, then turn them around and bring them back to the finish line, but instead of dismounting and turning them over to grooms, they rode back the way they came in, past the side of the clubhouse to one side of the walking ring, where they would get off and have maybe ten feet to walk into the locker room. The horses, other than the winner who walked just a few feet to the test barn,were then taken by grooms to the stable area, which was quite a ways down past the grandstand in a secluded wooded area. No winners circle, no photos--except for the feature race, where there was a cup presentation and maybe 3 or 4 people at most in the walking ring; not the mob scenes following U.S. races.

Immediately after each race, between 6-10 men, who I would call old-timers, walked out on to the track starting on the home stretch, with spiked poles, like sanitation workers use to pick up trash and papers. These guys carefully inspected the surface and would pick up any "divots" the horses may have kicked up and replaced them, or smooth out any areas that were roughed up even to warrant immediate attention. The surface was as fine a turf surface as any I have seen, and I am a devotee of turf racing. We were there on day 67 of this year's 69-day season from what I could tell.

After just watching two of the six races we had planned to take in, I got serious with the program and was surprised to discover that in spite of not knowing the language, I could dope out the information that was available fairly readily. Turns out they simulcast the races in Warsaw into 6 other cities in Poland in a limited sort of OTB operation.

Forget pace and speed. There are no times in the program. The lengths of the races are all in meters, so using the very rough conversion of 3 feet per meter (I know, I know, that's not right but I couldn't remember the exact equivalency), I was able to come up with distances I was familiar with. The two most common distances run that day were 1200 meters (one-turn sprint) and 2000 meters (one-turn route, starting almost in the middle of a turn). I guesstimated about 6 furlongs and a mile and an eighth; it turns out 1200 meters is 5.9 furlongs and 2000 meters is 9.9 furlongs.

The information that was available for each horse consisted of the number of races for last year and this, and a listing of the finishes and money earned, like this:

'01 6- 5-5-2-1-3 8718zl.

The zl is the zloty, the Polish unit of currency, which is worth about 25 cents. (But from a class handicapping viewpoint, who cares if it's zlotys or dollars?) Also, the last three races were listed with date run, names of ALL others in the race, and grade of race(no claiming structure); all lettered grades and such, and since the letters of the Polish language are broadly the same as English, it was possible to see--or guess--if a horse was rising, dropping or staying at the same class level. 

Short fields abound (a worldwide affliction?) with 8 horses being a lot, 6 more the average. In spite of this, there was exacta AND superfecta wagering on each race.  And a big challenge was keeping the exchange rate in mind when figuring a bet. Minimum was 2 zlotys---50 cents! Lessee....80 zlotys is....20 bucks. Overhearing the bettors in front of me at the windows, it struck me that I may well have been the biggest bettor at the track that day! (But I refrained from playing any superfectas when I saw that the payoff on one was 17-something....roughly $4.50!)

Using this seemingly shaky class handicapping foundation combined with what I consider to be an understanding of body language that at best could be called crudely adequate, I played three races and hit two winners and one exacta to turn a small profit for the day! It was not unlike the thrill of winning at the races for the first time! And it was a reality check on being able to play the game under truly "foreign" conditions.

It wasn't until after I returned to the U.S. that I learned that racing in Poland has a history almost as lengthy as American racing. This, from an article two or three years old in the Warsaw Voice, archived on the Internet: 

The Horse Racing Society was established in 1841 on the terrain of what had been before the partitions the Kingdom of Poland. Horse racing, however, had been organized in Poland long before this date.

 In Warsaw, the first race was held in 1777; a sensational event in which a mare belonging to the aristocrat Kazimierz Rzewuski beat a horse belonging to an English envoy by the name of Whitworth. Beating a horse from one of horse racing's traditional powers caused something of a stir at the time.

The first horse races to be organized at Sluzewiec took place only a few months before the outbreak of World War II-the racetrack was opened on June 3, 1939. Fortunately it was located far enough from the center of Warsaw to avoid damage during the war. Visitors can still admire the original architecture of the facility and its beautiful location.

The season at Sluzewiec lasts from April till the end of November. Races are held every weekend and, between July and October inclusive, also on Wednesdays. Horses run distances of 1,600 m (the Ruler award), 2,400 m (the Derby award) and 2,800 m (the Saint-Leger award). The greatest horse racing event in Poland is the international Wielka Warszawska, held in mid-October.

At present, 750 horses are regularly trained at Sluzewiec. Half of them are English and half are purebred Arabians, perfect for running long distances. Owing to the differences between the two breeds, the Arabians and English horses never race against each other.

One last reality check from a Day at the Races in Warsaw: I had managed to place my bets with the help of a middle-aged female mutuel clerk who knew the English equivalents of "win-place-show" and "exacta" who also managed to interpret my numerically-written selections and wagers. Before we left for the day, I went back to her window and tipped her a few zloty. She took the coins and stared at them with a puzzled look on her face, since they were not accompanied by any of my written wagers. It took her awhile to understand that I was giving her a tip! Apparently, gratuities are rare at the track in Warsaw. She was thrilled and delighted... and I ended the day with another reality check: that there still are places in the world where tips for good service are not expected, but are greatly appreciated when they are receieved.

PICTURES:

Entering the Track
The Big Picture
Tote Board Deluxe
How Wide Is It?
What a Stretch!