Sportsman's Park, located in Cicero, Illinois, was where harness royalty once raced, and memories were created.
For instance, in 1959, on consecutive racing cards during the summer, at the then five-eight's mile oval, two legends in the making each won a race.
Su Mac Lad won as a 5-year-old in a 2:02.2 track record clocking (Aug.12), returning $5.40 on a two-dollar ticket, in an event classified as an “A” Trot with a purse of $2,500 on the wire. Su Mac Lad would later be facing some of the top trotters in the nation en route to being named Horse of the Year three years later, hailing from the Stanley Dancer Stable.
Tie Silk won the following racing night (Aug. 14), returning $4.20 on a two-dollar win ticket, timed in 2:05.1 for the mile. The then 3-year-old son of Rodney-Pure Silk had finished second in that year’s Hambletonian, and returned the following year (1960) to capture the $61,196 American National Maturity Trot in 2:02.2 for driver Phillipe Dussault at Sportsman's.
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