Guilderland goes to the races with its own harness track in the 1950s, but it closed after losing its bid for betting

The crowd erupted in cheers for Altamont’s John Oliver as he maneuvered his sulky pulled by Grand Abby, his 14-year-old gelding, into the winning position nearing Victoria Raceway’s finish line, pulling off a victory with his “aged, but consistent good pacer.”
Such was the excitement for race fans at Guilderland’s own harness track in the 1950s.

Today’s travelers cruising west on Route 20 past the old hamlet of Dunnsville, beyond the traffic light at the intersection with County Route 397 will soon spot a sign out front of a neat farm identifying itself as Victoria Acres. Difficult to imagine today, but for a time in the 1950s that same farm had a half-mile track where pacers and trotters competed in harness races, while during a few years in the l960s NASCAR-sanctioned stock cars roared around the same track.

Businessman Charles Russo, owner of Rudisco, an Albany wholesale company that distributed electrical equipment, in 1950 acquired the 186-acre farm west of Dunnsville opposite the Swiss Inn, a popular dining and dancing spot.

Research doesn’t show whether Russo named the property Victoria Acres at the time of his purchase or if the acreage had already acquired that name. Russo not only owned horses himself, but his son Peter was a horseman who had begun racing at Saratoga’s harness track as a teenager in 1948.

During the time his son Peter was forced to interrupt his horseman’s career for two years of military service, Charles Russo began transforming the old farm into a training site for harness horses and as a home for breeding stock. At the time he took over the farm, Russo’s racing stable included six horses.

By 1953, the first notices appeared in The Altamont Enterprise describing harness races that were to be run on the Victoria Acres half-mile track. That first year of racing, three Sunday matinée harness meets were run at what had been renamed Victoria Raceway.

The great local interest among spectators and area horsemen encouraged Russo. His son, now returned from military service, along with the other associates who had helped to organize the 1953 races, worked to expand track operations in 1954.

Characterized in the press as “a new Albany Raceway,” 40 dates had been chosen for harness racing at the new Victoria Raceway. The track was to provide a place where drivers who were amateurs could compete with other amateurs.

Russo and his associates were seeking financial backing to expand the track, planning to incorporate, allowing the corporation to purchase the farm, erect new stables and a grandstand, create parking facilities and a judges’ stand. The original farmhouse was to be updated to make it into a clubhouse for members. However, there was to be no betting.

Announcing in May 1954 that the Victorian Acres Trotting Association had been formed by a group of local horsemen, Russo said the track was now sanctioned and licensed by the United States Trotting Association. Owners of slower horses that couldn’t quite race at the speed demanded in the time trials at a pari-mutuel track would have a place to compete.

Plans for the new track located on the former Charles Russo farm, now owned by a corporation, would include a spectator grandstand for 2,000 people, parking area, refreshment stand, and other necessary facilities.

To get the track up and running, Charles Russo was made president and his son Peter vice president with a secretary and treasurer.

Racing officials of the raceway were presiding judge, associate judge, a starter, assistant starter, starting-gate driver, racing secretary, associate racing secretary, clerk of the course, announcer, two timers, paddock judge, track physician, assistant physician and ambulance driver, three track maintenance men, two gate attendees and a policeman.

Obviously, a sizable number of men from the Capital District had become involved in the raceway.

“Local enthusiasts of harness racing” could view Saturday and Sunday races at 2 p.m. Drivers would mainly be nonprofessionals: horse owners, amateur trainers and drivers, racing for varying purses or trophies.

The main goal of the racers was to train their horses to race, with the objective that some would then qualify at a pari-mutuel track like the Saratoga Harness Track.

Many area horse owners trained and raced their horses at Victoria Acres including a few Guilderland horse owners whose names appeared in The Enterprise during the years that the track was in operation. They included Mike Orsini, Tony Orsini, Earl Gray, and John Oliver.

Setback

A big Fourth of July program was scheduled at the raceway that year with special events over the three-day weekend with two trophy races scheduled that Monday.

Alas, a few days later, these ambitious plans were stymied by the New York State Attorney General who ruled the newly formed Albany County harness racing organization had no right to incorporate the Victoria Acres track.

The group had optimistically applied for the dual purposes of getting a license to run harness meets and raising money to upgrade the track and physical plant. The State Harness Racing Commission had handed the application over to Attorney General Nathaniel Goldstein for an opinion.

He ruled that it could not be licensed or incorporated due to state law that permitted only eight harness tracks to have pari-mutuel betting. Non-betting events were limited to short-term racing as at a county fair, not applicable to Victoria Raceway.

In spite of the setback from the attorney general, perhaps with a lengthy appeals process in progress, Victoria Acres continued operation the next year, seemingly quite successfully.

Races were run and for one it was noted a large gathering of harness-racing fans turned up in mid-October to cheer on the sulky drivers in three races with “many fast miles” run by the “sleek gaited pacers and trotters.”

Earlier in that season, there was the added attraction of “Guilderland Day,” a special event held on Decoration Day when Supervisor John Welsh was honored at a big celebration including an Albany drum-and-bugle corps, musical performances, and acrobatic acts to entertain the crowd.

The usual races were run with trophies for the winners.                                                                                                                 

Early in 1956, fifty standardbred horses were in training there with some breeding going on as well. Dr. John Brennan, retired Guilderland veterinarian, remembered “Charlie” Russo calling him not long after he had begun his veterinary practice on Route 20, requesting his services at the farm.

That spring, Charles Russo, who continued to be identified as president and general manager of Victoria Acres Inc., listed that year’s track officials, noting that Racing Secretary Edwin S. Smith of Loudonville was in the process of lining up races.

The meets would begin at 2 p.m. with free parking and admission for spectators. Matinée races on April 17 kicked off the season. Due to lack of lighting around the oval, there could be no night racing.

Late winter of 1957 found 45 trotters and pacers training at the Victoria Raceway track, several of them previously winning horses at leading pari-mutuel tracks in the eastern United States, now preparing for the 1957 season.

Claiming the half-mile track was one of the finest winter training tracks in the East, there was a “daily beehive of activity” as the owners and trainers readied their horses for the beginning of the meets at various harness tracks.

Victoria opened on Sunday, May 5, when several men from Altamont entered horses for the spring events.

Betting on horizon

The big news that spring was the announcement that the track had applied for pari-mutuel status to allow betting on the premises. New York state not only strictly controlled betting at race tracks, but limited the number of harness tracks in the state where betting could take place.

State approval was necessary before Victoria could take that step. An opening had occurred that would allow one additional harness track in the state to achieve pari-mutuel status, putting Victoria Raceway in competition with other tracks with the same ambition.

The New York State Racing Commissioner George P. Monaghan, who had the power to name the successful applicant, visited the track in mid-May to examine its facilities and its physical layout and to hear about its projected plans.

He toured the grounds after being entertained at lunch by Russo and track officials. Guilderland Town Supervisor John Welsh also participated.

Monaghan was probably shown the diagram of the track’s planned expansion; the same diagram illustrated an article in the May 31 issue of The Altamont Enterprise.

There was to be a new clubhouse, grandstand, stables and other facilities; in all, over $2,000,000 was to be spent.

The Guilderland group was informed by Monaghan at the time of his visit that he intended to hold additional hearings concerning the matter in New York City after which they would be notified of his decision.

When the decision became known in mid-July, it was a deep disappointment to everyone whose dream was to establish a first-class harness track in Guilderland.

Instead, the pari-mutuel license was handed out to a Sullivan County track because Victoria Raceway was only 35 miles away from the Saratoga Harness Track. This marked the end of Victoria’s quest to become a major harness track.

Harness racing continued in 1958, though there seemed to be little coverage of the races. One race in October did draw 2,000 fans “thrilled” by the race program, especially since one of the winners was a horse that had been bred and trained at Victoria Acres.

A spring meet was scheduled for 1959 and there was a birth announcement of the foaling of a black colt by Charles Russo’s stallion Forbes Chief. Having lost its bid to become a pari-mutuel track, harness racing came to a quiet end at Victoria Acres. By 1960 the half-mile oval track had become home to NASCAR stock car racing — another story entirely.