Some of you are probably too young to remember what life was like before cell phones. It was much different.

But at the race track, you couldn't use ANY phone. At my local track, there was actually an off-duty policeman who was stationed at the pay phones to make sure nobody used one before the races finished. The only way to use a phone was to go to the racing office and there were two chances they would let you use their phone... slim and none.

So, if you wanted to know how grandma in the hospital was doing or you wanted to know what was for dinner or whether the kids did their homework or whatever, tough. No phone calls.

Apparently they were concerned that people might be calling bookies. Of course, everyone knew who the bookies were right there at the track. But the police watched the pay phones while the bookies took bets on site. Odd.

What do you remember about the old days of racing?

I recall that pay phones were disabled at GP about 30 minutes before the 1st race.
There was a device placed on them that prevented getting a dial tone.

Back in the old days, there was no simulcasting. And, there were no tracks open on Tuesday.

When simulcasting did come along, it created some interesting scenarios. Mostly for big races, you might have local pools for remote races, which sometimes meant you could shop for the best prices. When Very Subtle won the Breeders Cup, I had her at 20/1 while the on track price was less... I think it was about 16/1.

And, I had two accounts in Canada, which were sometimes not comingled. The bets were sometimes very light, so it was sometimes possible to have a favorite to win pay $15 or something like that to show. You had to be a $2 bettor to take advantage of that situation because there was only $100 or so in the entire show pool sometimes.

The shut down the pay phone rule was still in the Pa Horse racing commission rules as recently as 2015. I believed it disappeared sometime after that. That speaks volumes about our ruling body.

That speaks volumes about our ruling body. — Tony Kofalt

Lol! And, it says a lot about how often rules are reviewed. Ha!

i had a buddy who I knew didn't have much money, but he would bet $100 to win. That's probably several times that in today's dollars. So, I asked him... why so much?

So, he said, well I figured out... if I have money, i have women. If i have women, I have no money. So, the money is going away one way or the other. i might as well try to win enough to try to keep a woman just a little bit longer. — RanchWest

Reminds me of the old guy who said "I spent 95% of the money I made on liquor and women. The other 5% I wasted!"

I remember the old betting windows specifically assigned an amount and placing. If I wanted to bet WPS, I had to go to three different windows, unless the WPS window was open, usually only one weekends.

I miss the old multi colored tickets.yellow $2, red $5 , purple $10 and Red and yellow $50 for the high rollers.

Ranch, I believe it says a lot about our ruling bodies in general. I am in shock at the lack of knowledge possessed by our regulators. Incompetency, different state rules, etc all lead to a product that appears to lack integrity. I could go on and on and on about this

I suspect many of the positions are political appointments.