That’s when Speckels stepped in with financial aid they reopened the Jockey Club the following year. But fortune still eluded them and that same season a fire ravaged the track. To keep the momentum, they hastily rebuilt and reopened in April. The sparkling new facility was only one week old when the "nature that intended for the spot" included heavy rains and the worst flooding in 25 years which destroyed the track. Its border location was also its downfall as it was built on the low ground of the Tijuana riverbed. The San Diego Union at the time reported, "Surrounded by the mauve hills of old Mexico, as though nature intended the spot for the site, lies the magnificent new Tijuana race course, a few miles from the thriving little village." That initial track location was near the U.S./Mexico border and the six horse races on opening day drew 10,000 Californians who were denied betting legally on horse racing at home. Joining Coffroth was Baron Long, the owner of San Diego’s Hotel U.S. Coffroth, the Tijuana Jockey Club opened with a lot of publicity in January 1916, following Mexico’s 1915 decision to legalize gambling. ![]() Spreckels who owned the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego stepped in to save it.įinanced by San Francisco boxing promoter James W. The original track, the Tijuana Jockey Club, was destroyed twice in its first year before John D. ![]() At first, it seemed the racing gods didn’t want Tijuana to have a racetrack.
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