1958 AUDUBON PARK RACEWAY Stock Certificate Henderson, Kentucky Horseracing Rare

Description

This auction is for:
1958 Audubon Park Raceway, Inc. Stock Certificate
Henderson, Kentucky. Rare and scarce horseracing track stock! Audubon has an interesting history, read it below. Later became Riverside Downs Racetrack. Red, 25 share certificate issued to disgraced Wall Street firm Merrill Lynch on Nov. 21, 1958.
Audubon was a half mile dirt oval, that conducted racing for 38 years in Henderson. It was located a few miles from the Indiana border and only was a short drive across the Ohio River, to Ellis Park, which helped bring it to it's demise. The track held mostly night harness racing and featured a glass enclosed grandstand, which sat 3,200 with 450 additional seats in the clubhouse. There was parking for 2,000 cars. Audubon Raceway started and ended a harness track, but it had a lot of change in between.
Starting out in 1955, with harness racing as Audubon Raceway, the track never seemed to find  a firm financial footing. After only one year of harness racing Audubon converted to thoroughbreds, they only lasted two years. At that point the track went dark from 1958 to 1963. In 1964 the harness horses returned for their longest run as Audubon Raceway, which lasted eleven years, when financial woes struck again.
In 1974, the track once again changed hands and was reamed Midwest Harness, this lasted through 1978. In 1979, the track reverted back to Audubon Raceway, this continued until 1986, when the track went bankrupt one more time. Trying to avert a final shutdown, a group of horsemen pulled together to re-open the track in 1987. Now named Western Kentucky Harness Raceway, this arrangement only lasted one year and looked like the end of harness racing in Henderson.
After the eighty seven season the track changes hands again, this time it gets it's current name Riverside Downs and introduces quarter horse racing in 1988. After a couple of years of quarter horse racing, standardbreds return in 1990 with a split quarter horse and harness meet. From then on the track runs only harness horses through 1993, but the real problem becomes simulcasting. Somewhere at the beginning of this ramble I mentioned Ellis Park, well this is where they fit in.
Around this time in Kentucky, simulcast or inter track wagering was beginning in Kentucky, and it was regulated by county and because Riverside Downs and Ellis Park were in the same county, this was a problem for both tracks, each wanting the bigger share of the pie. To make a long story short, after a lot of legal battles, in a surprise move the Kentucky Racing Commission granted all the dates to Ellis Park. In response the owner of Riverside Downs closed the track and made a deal to move his dates to a new track he would build in Ashland. There is no indication that this ever happened, but it was the end of Audubon Raceway.
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RETURNS AND GUARANTEE
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Buyer satisfaction and authenticity of certificate is guaranteed – returns are accepted with 14 days of purchase (buyer pays return shipping cost unless item received is not as described in this listing).
All certificates are originals, I do not sell reproductions. Stocks may have pinholes, tears, etc. Certificate shown is exact certificate you will receive, we don't use stock photos. Stock certificates may give paper cuts, use care when handling. Stock certificates are sold as collectibles only, no actual market value is to be expected.