On Aug. 31, 1955, thoroughbred horseracing was the top spectator sport in the United States and on that date a two-horse race known as “The Great Match Race” put Homewood and its Washington Park Racetrack in the winner’s circle. The match-up was between Swaps, a West Coast horse that won the Kentucky Derby that year, and Nashua, an East Coast racer that finished the Derby a length behind Swaps but subsequently won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes and earned the “Horse of the Year” title.
Homewood Historical Society President Bob Anderson
will present the history of “The Great Match Race”
at the organization’s September meeting.
(Karen Torme Olson/H-F Chronicle)
On that day 70 years ago, more than 35,000 racing fans, reporters, and celebrities flooded Homewood and Washington Park to see the two horses and their elite jockeys (Eddie Arcaro on Nashua and Bill Shoemaker on Swaps) go head-to-head in a 1 ¼-mile race for a winner-take-all $100,000 purse. Millions of others watched on network TV.
Seventy years later, at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 10, HHS President Robert (Bob) L. Anderson Jr., will open the society’s presentation series at the Homewood Public Library, 17917 Dixie Highway, with a retrospective of the race and a revelation of the celebrity and political “horse trading” that made it possible. Anderson will draw on his love of sports, extensive journalism and radio experience, and a deep knowledge of Homewood history to recall that day and the fascinating dynamic that put Homewood and Washington Park on the map.
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