10/22/2026
In 1873, as many as 40,000 people were reported in and around a racetrack by Lake Merced.
It was called the Ocean View Course.
It sat beside Ocean House Road, today's Eucalyptus Drive, across from a roadhouse called the Ocean House.
When it opened in 1865, 8,000 fans came, a record for a sporting event in California at the time.
Races then were tests of endurance, run in heats of one to four miles.
The track's last big race was called the Great Race.
A California thoroughbred named Thaddeus Stevens against two of the best Eastern horses.
He finished third in each of the first two heats.
The daylight was running out, so the rest before the third heat was cut to fifteen minutes.
He won it by ten lengths.
The final heat started at 5:20 in the evening, with lamps lit along the homestretch and fog pushing in from the ocean.
He crossed the line ten lengths ahead, after sixteen miles of racing.
The rest was part of the race.
Between heats the horses stood down: forty-five minutes, then fifteen as the light went, then thirty.
In horsemanship we call that the return to softness.
It isn't a break from the work.
It's what makes the next effort possible.
Where does your rest between heats come from?
