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Oriental Park Racetrack in Marianao, Havana, Cuba, was a thoroughbred horse-racing facility operated during the winter by the Havana-American Jockey Club of Cuba. Founded in 1915, Oriental Park was the only race track in Cuba before Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. It was closed February 5th, 1967.
In its heyday, American owners brought their horses to race at Oriental Park Racetrack during the winter, and future Hall of Fame jockey Laverne Fator rode there in 1918, as did Alfred Robertson in the mid-1920s and Cuban-born Avelino Gomez. With American racetracks closed, jockey Joe Culmone, contract rider for Brookmeade Stable, won three races at Oriental Park on December 31, 1950, tying Bill Shoemaker for most wins that year by an American jockey. Shoemaker won on the same day at Agua Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana, Mexico.
Oriental Park is also famous for hosting the April 5, 1915 boxing match between Jack Johnson and Jess Willard. [1]
Many American celebrities on vacation or who were performing at the nearby Tropicana Club visited fashionable Oriental Park Racetrack, as did Europeans such as tennis star Suzanne Lenglen. Prominent hotelier John McEntee Bowman, owner of Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York and president of Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Corp., which counted the Seville-Biltmore Hotel in Havana as part of its hotel properties, served as president of the Havana-American Jockey Club, as did Harry D. ("Curly") Brown, owner of Arlington Park in Chicago.
In his book Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life, author Robert Lacey wrote that in 1937, gangster Meyer Lansky gained control of the racetrack and casino.
At Calder Race Course in Miami Gardens, Florida, is a wall in its Hall of Fame dedicated to the famous Cuban horsemen who raced at Oriental Park.
Oriental Park also hosted automobile races in 1920. [2]
Meyer Lansky, known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate in the United States.
Bowman-Biltmore Hotels was a hotel chain created by the hotel magnate John McEntee Bowman.
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The Sevilla Habana Affiliated by Meliá is a historic hotel in Havana, Cuba.
Lazaro Sosa Barrera was a Cuban-born American Hall of Fame thoroughbred racehorse trainer.
Avelino Gomez was a Cuban-born Hall of Fame jockey in American and Canadian thoroughbred horse racing.
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Alfred Masson Robertson was a Hall of Fame jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing.
John McEntee Bowman was a Canadian-born businessman, American hotelier and horseman, and the founding president of Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Corp.
Laverne Andrew Fator was an American Hall of Fame jockey.
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Joseph Culmone was an American Champion jockey. in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing.
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Arthur Pickens was an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who won the most prestigious race in both the United States and Canada. In 1916 Pickens won two of the three races that would later be part of the Canadian Triple Crown series. His wins came aboard distiller Joseph Seagram's colt Mandarin in the 1916 Breeders' Stakes and in Canada's most prestigious race, the King's Plate. That year he also won the Coronation Futurity Stakes for the Seagram Stable.
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