A Track Too Far !
Scotts Bluff FairThe races at Mitchell were run at the Scotts Bluff fairgrounds on a half mile track for thoroughbred racing. It had a small open air grandstand that seated 2,000, which still appears to be there. Racing was held for a week in September, there was room for 300 horses in the stables.
This little known venue barely qualifies under my guidelines, but it does. The races at Mitchell were run as part of The Scotts Bluff County Fair. Pari mutual betting started around the late forties and continued until 1967 when racing was discontinued. It was the first of many Nebraska tracks to meet it's end and location may have been a factor.
Racing at MitchellMitchell, Nebraska is located on the western border of the state and is the last stop before Wyoming. Running only six days a year and not located near an interstate highway, the nearest track would have been the also defunct fair at Madison, which was six and a half hours away. Whether distance was a factor it probably didn't help either.
There doesn't seem to be anything note worthy about the races in Mitchell other than it probably was a nice place for the locals to enjoy racing once a year. I'm sure that after almost fifty years, the list of people who remember the racing here grows shorter every year.
Today the Scotts Bluff County fair is still held every year, the grandstand where crowds cheered for their horses is still standing, but no sign exists that there ever was a racing oval there.
I have to admit, I've never been to Mitchell. I've criss crossed the country and never came close to Mitchell, I have a bad habit of taking I-76 and heading to Denver, which at least takes you to Brush, Colorado probably the closest track to Mitchell and it would probably be pretty hard to find someone who attended the races at either track. Mitchell had an average attendance of about 1,500.