Freehold Raceway was not the racetrack I grew up at, but it is one where I spent many afternoons with my dad. When my father first began buying into partnerships for Standardbreds, those horses typically raced at Freehold and we would enjoy many afternoons in Billy’s Room to go see the horses race. I remember the first horse we owned, a mare named Michelene’s Lair. She won a couple of times for us there with Ron Pierce driving and was the first horse that my dad got to take a winner’s circle picture with. I was 13 years old at the time. We’d have many horses compete there over the years. Trot Like Dad was one of my favorites and I can remember him winning in the rain from post 8, which was no small feat at the Afternoon Delight off Route 9. We had a horse named Manasquan that was driven regularly by Andy Miller on the half-mile oval. He was a small horse with a big heart that got to the winner’s circle a few times with the Orange Crush. I remember our horses like Eastern Hanover, Splitting Hares and Badcreditnoproblem who all raced at Freehold. Anytime our horse won, it meant that my dad probably had a pretty good day and we were headed for a doubleheader, driving up to The Meadowlands at night. I was at Freehold Raceway on Preakness Day 1998 because we had a horse racing. I remember the video feed from Pimlico going out and learning later that the racetrack had a partial blackout. Back then there was no social media or text messaging. It took a phone call to one person, who spoke to another person, etc. I remember sitting there for a good 15 to 20 minutes having no clue what was going on. One day I filled in for the great Larry Lederman calling the races there. Larry’s booming voice and unmatched humor and wit can never be replaced or forgotten and it will resonate in Freehold, New Jersey long after the last race is declared official. While Freehold Raceway was not my “home racetrack,” it’s another part of my youth that is going away. As someone who is now 41 years old, despite the fact that I still feel like a kid, I have been through a lot of loss the last 10 years, worse than some, not as much as others, but it feels like I am too young to have seen so many people and places leave this world, and Freehold Raceway is another sad reminder of that. Sure, you can say “it’s just a racetrack, Darin,” but as anyone who has experienced a great deal of loss in their life, these things all add up and quite honestly it can become depressing. My wife’s parents are both gone. My parents are both gone. Of course, this is something everyone goes through, but when a husband and wife have both lost their parents before they are 40 years old, it’s difficult and only brings about more of these feelings. Time doesn’t heal all wounds, as time passes the wounds just feel different. In the racing world I have lost dear friends like Sam McKee, Dave Brower and Larry Lederman, all taken from us way too soon and at young ages. The places that have gone away are on this list too for me. Garden State Park is gone. The original Meadowlands, the building that I grew up in, is no more. Atlantic City Race Course. Belmont Park was just demolished and is being rebuilt. Aqueduct is said to only be racing a couple more years. The list goes on and on. The longer you live, the more you lose. That is just life. There is no way around it. There is no way to avoid it. But it takes its toll. You start to realize that despite how you feel, you’re not that young anymore. With each thing that is taken away you feel more and more disconnected from your childhood and your youth. I’ve written many times about my father, how horse racing was our shared interest and the racetrack was where we bonded as father and son, but if I think about those times now, it brings on feelings of melancholy. My father is gone. The room in the racetrack we spent many nights in together is gone. Some of the people who were there with us are gone. The dining room at Philadelphia Park (now Parx) where we ate lunch and spent weekends together is gone. Garden State Park and the room with that incredible view of the paddock that we spent time in is gone. Now Freehold Raceway where we cheered our horses down the stretch and shared highs and lows together will soon be gone. I am sure someone is reading this column and what I am saying is resonating with them. Maybe Freehold was to them what The Meadowlands was to me. While Freehold may not have been the place I “grew up” at like The Meadowlands, it is still full of memories. Sadly it will soon take its place on an ever-expanding list of people and places that are no longer around, bringing about more and more feelings of sadness. These feelings are of course subjective. I remember walking around The Meadowlands in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, seeing the place packed on a Saturday night and just thinking how awesome it was and people would tell me “you should have seen it at its peak.” I never understood that, because to me there was a never a better time to be there and I am sure someone shares the same feeling for a period of time at Freehold. I never understood how someone could be around for something so great and exclaim that once it was even greater. Now, I understand. This is yet another reminder of better days gone by, a reminder of a childhood disappearing in the rearview mirror and a reminder that it will never be as good as it once was. Farewell Freehold, and thanks for the memories.