Horse racing and summer fun in Amsterdam
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, 07-10-2021
In the 1890s and early 1900s, there was horse racing and other contests during the summer meet of the Amsterdam Fair and Driving Association.
The Association had a half mile oval race track and extensive grounds at McClary Park on the south side of the city.
The Johnstown Daily Republican in 1896 reported the opening of the Amsterdam racing season that year took place the afternoon of Saturday, May 30th, when purses amounting to $425 were awarded.
The afternoon began with three trotting races. First race purse was $150, second race purse was $100 and the third was $76.
The fourth event was a men's running race with a $75 purse. This was followed by something called a "peg race" for a $10 purse. The last event was a one-mile bicycle race for the championship of Montgomery County.
In the 1930s the neighborhood off Race Course Street and Grieme Avenue, where McClary Park used to be, became known as Califano Heights. In 1929 a new athletic field had been built there.
The Recorder in 1939 ran a vintage picture taken just outside the old racetrack in the 1890s, "Modern architecture was not employed in the construction of the small wooden shanty which was the first ticket office of the Amsterdam Fair and Driving Association at McClary Park."
The picture showed a man in the ticket shed with a soap box for a seat. An improvised slot in a piece of wood was used to pass in admittance money. The ticket seller was identified as Charles H. Gardiner, prominent in the Republican Party. He was a former sixth ward supervisor and people called him "Colonel."
Standing outside the ticket booth was John W. Carmichael, also a well-known resident, who the Recorder said took a keen interest in sports. A third man in the picture was Peter V. Baird, a liveryman and contractor. All three had connections to the fair association.
The association had more than a racetrack at McClary Park in the 1890s. The track enclosure contained a baseball diamond where early Amsterdam teams used to play.
The Recorder wrote, "It was there that Big Sigsbee of Union College pitched his memorable game against the Baileys of Little Falls that finally landed him with the
New York Giants for a trial. Charley Sullivan, then of Amsterdam, now a lawyer in New York City, also a student at Union College then, was battery mate of Sigsbee."
Wikipedia said Seth Dewitt Sigsby, a native of Cobleskill, was briefly a pitcher for the New York Giants in 1893. The article didn't mention Union College. Sigsby died in Schenectady. .
The 1939 Recorder article on McClary Park added, "The first Amsterdam High School football team in 1897 played its home games there. Then too, the famous hub-and-hub hose races of the Serviss and Bronson (volunteer fire department) teams were run off on the McClary track and Jimmy Dime beat Ed Floyd in a great 100-yard foot race there."
SANFORD MATINEE RACES
From 1903 through 1907, the carpet tycoon Stephen Sanford and his family invited the people of Amsterdam to the Sanford Matinee Races at their huge Hurricana thoroughbred horse farm on the Sunday closest to Fourth of July. Remnants of the farm, later called Sanford Stud Farm, still can be seen on Route 30 north of Amsterdam city.
Trolleys ran up Meadow and Market Streets. From there, horse drawn wagons took people to the farm. Some automobiles went to the farm as well but were not admitted to the grounds. There was food, drink, music and horse racing. Some 15,000 attended the event's last year.
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