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Opening Day Ticket

  Deep in the Heart of Nowhere !

RollieWhiteBonaparte, First T-Bred Winner

Like the Lone Star on the Texas Flag, G. Rollie White was the lone parimutual racetrack in Texas, in 1989. Unfortunately it didn't last much longer than the battle at the Alamo, billed as being in the heart of Texas, it was more like in the middle of nowhere.

G. Rollie White, was located in Brady, population 5,976, located about halfway between San Antonio and Abilene. Running as a Class 2 track it featured an open air grandstand that seated 3,000. It was also to have a 200 seat clubhouse, but that was never built. The track itself was a five eights mile oval. The facility could house 500 horses. The cards were mostly quarter horse races, but some thoroughbred races were run.  

On that first day, if you were part of the estimated 4,000 who showed up you probably passed B's Beer Barn, where you could wet your whistle, savor the local cuisine, or get some tips on the races. It seems both G. Rollie White Downs and B's are still standing today. A few seconds after 1:00 pm, He A Vik, a Texas bred quarter horse, was the first steed to light up a tote board in Texas, in fifty two years. Sadly, that estimated crowd of 4,000 was never bested and G. Rollie White never finished it's first season of racing. G. Rollie White set the standard for all Class 2 tracks in Texas. It may have disappeared the quickest, but no other Class 2 track licensed in Texas, exists today. 

Just who was G. Rollie White? He was a local philanthropist who donated the land for his namesake track in 1948, after a tornado destroyed another local racing site in 1945. G. Rollie, would never see a parimutual race at his facility, he passed away in 1965 at the age of ninety.