Courier-Post from Camden, New Jersey • Page 5

COURIER-POST, Monday, April 13, 1M7 5a Despite struggles, support runs high i v'4fyw'''simmammmt limmammmmmmmm-yy- mmmtmm ItPf 'MSB I ISUi I In i I i iii ill ill jjiilBlij Yjx rj if DEWEY WILLIAMS: JOYCE CAPEHART- "The clerks were working. -We a figured we 'would be People were in line. No one back the next day. No one was realized the situation was what panicking. People were trying to cash their tickets." BOB McCURLEY: "I knew the building.

I knew if it ever caught fire it would go up fast. Someone said there was a fire and I took off. We all took STELLA CUZZUPE: "We didn't panic. I really thought I was going to come back to work that same day. I left my report on my desk, my sweater, my umbrella." Track veterans recall Garden State past "The clerks were working.

People were in line," he said. "No one realized the situation was what it was." By the time he waited for his father to leave the building and was driving away from the track, it was clear the landmark would be destroyed. "I felt sad, naturally it was a piece of history going down the drain. It had a lot of history behind it and it can't be replaced." Nevertheless, Williams said he likes the new track and believes it can succeed. Joyce Capehart, of Mount Laurel, who was horsemen's bookkeeper in 1977, has since risen to the post of director of purchasing in the office of the general manager.

"We all figured we would be back the next day," Capehart, 51, said of the evacuation. "No one was panicking. People were trying to cash their tickets," she said. "After I came out of the building and turned back, I saw the entire skyline of the building was in flames. That's when I knew.

"I had a feeling that was very difficult to explain. It was like losing a child." But that same child has been reoorn, sne insisted. "Everything that was Garden State Park, except the grandstand, is still here," Capehart said. "We've made some facade changes. Nostalgia is a wonderful thing, but nostalgia for us is to remember opening day.

Stella Cuzzupe of Pennsauken was working in the "money room," where program and parking fee monies were counted and recorded, when she had the first inkling of the coming inferno. Cuzzupe, who now works as a supervisor at the admission gate, said the fire initially seemed to be a minor inconvenience. "We didn't panic. I really thought I was going to come back to work that same day. I left my report on my desk, my sweater, my umbrella." She and her co-workers did place all of the money in a large, old-fashioned safe before leaving and heading to a nearby restaurant From the parking lot, they looked back and saw the grandstand and clubhouse rapidly being consumed by flames.

"I had a numb feeling," Cuzzupe said. "I was seeing it, but I couldn't believe it It was a weird day. "I'll never forget it It was as if I lost part of my family." Cuzzupe, who began working at Garden State in 1959, said she is optimistic about the new track, although employees "hear so many rumors" about the facility. "The track is good for the community, and I hope it comes through," she said. Dewey Williams, a mutuel clerk who was working in the press box 10 years ago, recalled how business continued as usual even during the first stages of the evacuation.

Continued from Page 1A "Everyone pretty much figured we'd come back up in a half hour or so but when we got outside and saw the smoke, we knew." McCurley was concerned for the safety of his son, Mike, who worked in the mutuel department Once the two were reunited outside, the elder McCurley looked up at what seemed an unbelievable spectacle. "The emotion I had was tremendous sadness, a feeling of loss I saw my first race there, I covered my first race there. "I don't know if it was my subconscious oi what, but I had the feeling it wouldn't ever be the way it was again." It isn't; the new Garden State Park "is overwhelming" to many racing fans, who "don't want pretty," McCurley said. The proliferation of competitors for the gambling and entertainment dollar, and changes in the racing industry, have made it difficult for the new track to live up to expectations, he added. But McCurley said he believes the fans are adjusting to the new facility, which in time may inspire as much nostalgia as the old Garden State.

"I'm already beginning to feel that," he said. "This is it This is what we have. And it isn't such a bad spot Continued from Page 1A track President Robert Quigley "It's a long haul." Despite its less than stellar performance, there is significant support for the track among elected officiate and among some members of the business community in South Jersey. Led by Fifth District State Sen. Walter Rand, D-Camden, business and political leaders formed a "Back the Track" committee last year to rally support and make suggestions for pumping business into Garden State.

Rand and others continue to view the track as an integral part of the area's economy. "The track provides a lot of benefits, and it gives the township some pizzazz," said Sixth District NJ. Assemblyman John Rocco, R-CherryHill. Rocco was mayor of the township when the track burned down and became a key player in efforts to have it rebuilt "It certainly attracts people to Cherry Hill," Rocco said. "The first several years are going to be a struggle, but it's going to reach a stage where it's going to take off." Fran Burnstein, executive director of the Greater Cherry Hill Chamber of Commerce, called Garden State "a source of pride, but also a source of pain, because it's not doing well.

"I'd like nothing better than to see it turn around," she said. Nevertheless, critics contend that at $150 million, the track cost so much to build and therefore is so expensive to operate that it may never succeed. Even Rand allows that "I don't know if they should have built that extravaganza, so to speak, but it was their choice." Observers say the glittering Atlantic City casinos, other race tracks and even various state lotteries siphon away much of the finite amount of gambling and entertainment dollars potentially available to Garden State. So no matter how or to whom the track markets itself, the numbers at the gate and at the betting windows can't add up to the kind of success envisioned by those who dreamed and fought for a rebuilt Garden State Park, they contend. Quigley said he is "optimistic despite such talk.

But he acknowledged it will take "hard work and an awful lot of attention" to make the track profitable. "I don't know if things are ever going to totally take off," he said in a telephone interview. "I believe there will be a gradual increase in (patronage) hopefully we will function as a reasonably good, strong, live, thoroghbred meet" Quigley dismissed criticism that the track is too lavish and "pretty" for the bedrock, average horse player. "Somehow there's this misconception that horse players like dirty places, that they don't like restaurants and clean rest rooms," he said. Quigley acknowledged, however, that patronage by local residents, and patronage overall, has been less than expected.

"For some reason, in our own local market, we get lots of good wishes but we don't get a lot of patronage," Quigley said, adding, "The expectations of patronage have not been achieved." About 7,500 people pass through the Garden State turnstiles on an average day (there is seating for about The daily handle (amount of money bet) is averaging about 11,050,000, Quigley said. "Obviously I'd like to see those numbers much higher than they are," he said. With between 800 and 900 employees, the facility is operating "so we can turn the corner and start making some money." Although he said the current thoroughbred meet "is profitable," Quigley said he could not predict when Garden State actually would turn an annual profit "I think we're approaching that," he said. Quigley was asked whether controversy around Robert Brennan, the man whose singleminded vision Garden State ultimately reflects, has begun to cast a shadow over the struggling track's fortunes. ''I don't believe so," he said.

Brennan, principal stockholder in International Thoroghbred Breeders (ITB), the firm that built the track, resigned as chief of his First Jersey Securities stock brokerage firm last year. There have been longstanding allegations about misconduct in that firm's operations, which Brennan has steadfastly denied. "(First Jersey and Garden State) are two totally separate interests," Quigley said. "(The controversy) apparently doesn't hurt, and Mr. Brennan is quite popular with the employees and staff.

He's been here several times recently." Brennan could not be reached for comment last week. However, in an interview late last year with the Courier-Post, Brennan said, "there's an awful lot of money invested in the whole thing. And right now, it's just a disaster. "I would not have dreamed that we would have had as much trouble as we've had putting together economic success." Quigley said one way of achieving that success is to market the track as a convention and banquet site. Most track supporters believe that aggressive promotion of the horse sales pavilion, Phoenix Room restaurant, and other amenities of the complex is key to the survival of Garden State.

"It's a beautiful place, and it's an asset to the area. It's elegant It lends itself to a variety of uses," Rand said. He said use of the track as the site for the state fair and other entertainment events, and the proposal that it become a stop on the "Gambler's Express" to Atlantic City, could also provide a financial boost Cherry Hill Mayor Maria Green-wald, who took office several months after the 1977 fire, is a member of the Back the Track committee. Greenwald said she believes the future of Garden State lies in becoming more of a "community center," with racing and other entertainment programs, as well as trade shows and conventions. Make Easter spring.

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