The Palm Beach Kennel Club, located in West Palm Beach, Florida, is a year-round pari-mutuel facility that features some of the top greyhound racing in the country. Palm Beach Kennel Club has been open since the Thirties, and it has been the sight of some of the sport’s greatest action and most impressive stars. Palm Beach Kennel Club currently showcases a matinee performance every day of the week and an evening card on Friday and Saturday night. The oval is shorter than most standard greyhound tracks, with its sprint distance 15 feet short of the usual 1,650 feet, making speed to the turn a big plus for the canines that compete there.
Palm Beach Kennel Club is one of the oldest greyhound racing tracks in America, having been in operation since February of 1932. The original facility was owned and operated by the O. M. Carmichael family until it changed hands a couple of times later. In 1953, Palm Beach Kennel Club was purchased by John Boggiano, who added a grandstand section that still exists today. Boggiano had Palm Beach Kennel Club in his possession for eighteen years, and the track experienced great growth under his ownership. He sold the operation to the Rooney family in 1970, the same Rooneys that own the Pittsburgh Steelers franchise of the National Football League.
Art Rooney passed on in 1988, leaving the Palm Beach Kennel Club to his sons, who still run it. Palm Beach Kennel Club is one of the regions biggest employers, and it has been one of the few greyhound tracks that have been able to stand on its own without the aid of slot machines. No track has been left unfazed by the onslaught of lotteries and Indian casinos that now compete for the gambling dollar, but Palm Beach still sees handles that reach the half-million dollar mark on a regular basis, albeit much of it comes from simulcasting its signal to other betting facilities around the country.
No mention of Palm Beach Kennel Club can be made without talking about some of the great racers that have competed there. None caused more of a stir than the wonderful Pat C Rendevous, a female distance dog that won 36 consecutive races over the 660 yard course that now bears her name. This feat established a still standing world record for the distance. Hall of Famer Westy Whizzer also broke a standard while competing at Palm Beach Kennel Club, winning his then record 104th contest there in the 1960s. Madison Joker and Izz A Champ was another pair of All-Americans to race at Palm Beach Kennel Club, as was He’s My Man, whose 32 victories in 40 Palm Beach outings in 1988 helped him become the national wins champion.
Today there are thirteen separate kennels that are booked at Palm Beach Kennel Club, with the Rader Kennel on top of the standings by almost two hundred wins over the Bill Davidson outfit. Some of the best greyhounds strutting their stuff at Palm Beach include the distance star Homicide, 3/8ths of a mile standout KB’s Shine on, and a plethora of speedy sprinters led by Switzler Jammin and Craigie Capree. Another upandcomer is the hard driving Dash N Apache, a big male who may dominate the distances once he is tried over the 3/8ths course. And another ecord holder, Ozzie The Man, is returning from what was thought to have been a career ending injury to attempt to resume his winning ways, as he holds the track record of 26 wins on the sprint course in a row set just last year.
A full stakes schedule is in place at Palm Beach Kennel Club, beginning with the January running of the $25,000 He’s My Man Stakes held over the sprint distance. February sees the 3/8ths competitors come to the forefront in the $50,000 James W. Paul Derby. The finals of the $25,000 Arthur J. Rooney, Sr.-St. Pat’s Invitational, another sprint, is held, naturally, on March 17th and the $20,000 Bob Balfe/Molyneux Puppy Stakes is in April. A popular all-distance event, the $ 5,000 Bud Light Triathlon, goes to post in late May. Two more $20,000 stakes featuring the best puppies on the grounds are held in September and after Christmas, giving Palm Beach Kennel Club one of the most attractive stakes calendars in the industry.
One of the things that make Palm Beach such an attractive venue to wager at and on is the fact that the racing department has something for everyone in the distances that are run. Like most dog tracks, the majority of the races are run over the sprint distance, but Palm Beach mixes in enough 3/8ths and marathons to make things interesting and also has one or two 3/16ths of a mile dashes each performance. Run at 301 yards, it is over in about seventeen seconds, but handicappers enjoy the challenge of trying to decide which greyhound will make it around the only turn on top. Palm Beach Kennel Club has trifecta, quiniela, and perfecta wagering available on almost every race, and it has a number of exotic wagers as well. The Tri-Super and Twin-Trifecta have escalating carryover pools until they are hit, and there are pick Threes and Pick Fours to gamble on, with the Pick Four having a carryover pool as well.
