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Garden State ParkA Former thoroughbred racecourse at Cherry Hill, Camden County, New Jersey. Garden State Park opened in 1942 after delays caused by United States entry into World War II. Due to the seizing of thirty-thousand tons of structral steel by war authorities, Garden State Park's ornate Georgian-style grandstand was mostly constructed of wood. The scarce steel that was used came for the demolition of New York City's elevated railways. Despte this auspcious start, "the Garden" as it was known, was off to an excellent start. In its heyday, it would feature some of the finest throughbred racehorses in the nation in the track's signature race, the Grade II Jersey Derby Followed later by Atlantic City Race Course and Monmouth Park (1946), Garden Sate would become a crucial part of what was called the "Golden Triangle" of New Jersey racing. This triangle would lose a leg on 14 April 1977, when a fire raged undetected in the Colonial Room restaurant kitchen during the racing program. Despite no functional fire fighting system,the wooden grandstand would last long enough to allow over eleven thousand patrons and employees to escape the inferno. At 1645, the walls and massive roof overhang of the grandstand gave way to the flames and reduced the structure to a smoking ruin. Three lives were lost in the fire, one patron and one employee were later found in the rubble, and one fire officer who died of a heart attack on-scene. Garden State would sit abandoned until Securities-trader Robert Brennan financed construction of a new US$178,000,000 steel and glass grandstand which opened on 1 April 1985. The first race that day used a race scheduled to run the day the original track burned. The track, running night programs would provide racing for Standardbreds as well as Throughbreds. Despite a glamourous return, Garden State Park never re-acquired its glamourous past. Over sixteen years, the track would suffer from the apathy of New Jersey horsemen, New Jersey State offcials and unrestrained competition for the Atlantic City casinos. The final straw came when Governor Christine Todd Whitman vetoed legislation that would have permitted slot machines at New Jersey ractracks, a measure that would have saved the Cherry Hill landmark. On 3 May 2001, two thousand fans came to see the last racing program at Garden State. After fifty-eight years, Garden State Park ran its last race. On 30 October 2003 with the property sold for a housing development, demolition started on the grandstand often referred to as a masterpiece. By late March 2004, all that remained of the beloved racecourse was the original 1942 gatehouse on Route 70.
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