The Pinehurst Race Track is primarily a horse racing track which hosted the Sandhill Fair from 1917 until the fair's final run in 1925. The grounds have been first and foremost a horse training facility throughout their history, especially prominent in local harness racing, though they have also seen service for polo, polocrosse, and other equestrian activities.

Overall, NC State had a record of 0-0-1 at this field, tying the lone game they played.

  * Non-conference games

Early records on the history of the Pinehurst Race Track are somewhat scarce. This isn't terribly surprising: Pinehurst was, after all, primarily a "winter colony" for well-to-do northerners which had existed for just two decades in 1915, the reported opening date of the facility. In its earliest years, the resort town focused on golfing and hunting recreation, though it was not long before other activities came: the first documented polo field opened in 1912, just to the west of the Carolina Hotel, while resort manager Leonard Tufts (son of founder James Tufts) had been working on an equestrian complex "on the southeast section of the original tract" in the early 1910s; the Pinehurst Jockey Club was organized in November 1915, and this date has been recognized as the formal opening of the racetrack grounds.

At the same time, Tufts was looking to further build up his resort town. Recognizing the importance of agricultural investment, he spearheaded efforts to create the Sandhill Fair, sponsoring the majority of the event's expenditures and proffering the town's garage and livery stable -- among and other facilities the northeast side of town (about the present location of Pinehurst Brewing) as a host site in the inaugural year. The following two years, the event was held "in and about the [Pinehurst] Country Club" grounds, predominantly in the club house [1] [3] [2].

The racetrack was formally inaugurated in February 1916; an improvised grandstand adorned the field for most of the venue's first year; it was replaced with a formal grandstand in December and enclosed in glass the following year. (A capacity has not been found, though my estimate based on extant photos would be about 500 seats). The fair was simulataneously in improvement mode: the Amphidrome, along with "a number of new buildings," was built on the Race Track grounds as a purpose-made exhibition hall ahead of the 1917 fair, signalling the event's formal relocation to the jockey club's grounds. At the same time, Tufts convinced the National Berkshire Congress to hold their annual sale in conjunction with the fair, adding a livestock sale to the event. Tufts eschewed the commercialism of the traditional midway, allowing spectators to focus only on the agricultural elements of the event. Races were naturally held in conjuction with the fair [4].

Despite the many improvements made to the grounds, the track in particular, as well as the polo field, were generally looked down upon by Pinehurst residents in its early years. A 1936 retrospective remembered the early loop as "a primitive mongrel track where informal races, crude gymkhanas and horse monkeyshines were held at odd times," while a 1919 article praised the jockey club in general, but noted the town's need of a polo field as an area of potential growth [5].

To that end, the Sandhills Polo Club was organized in February 1920, and set about improving race track's infield for the horseback sport. And while rudimentary sports (including ad-hoc athletic contests, as well as a few local basketball games) had been a part of fair festivities the previous year, that Fall marked the arrival of true high-level organized sports arrived at the fair when the NC State and Davidson freshmen teams brought their meeting to the racetrack. And in 1921, a new grandstand featuring 21 "boxes" (effectively, luxury suites in modern parlance) was built with a restaurant located beneath it; the new seating was attached to the existing grandstand, raising capacity to (per my estimation) about 1,000 seats. The fair had also expanded to include an annual Ayrshire cattle sale, in addition to the continued Berkshire sale.

The fair leaned into athletics in the 1920s, hosting an increasing number of high school football and basketball games, and even auto polo. The State and Davidson freshmen teams (or scrub teams, one year) met in Pinehurst again in 1921 through 1923, with the Red and White winning 3 games and tying once. Management finally convinced the schools' varsity squads to meet in 1924, which resulted in a tie. Fair leaders intended the 1925 edition of the rivalry to be held in the sandhills oncemore, but this did not come to pass; nor could the freshman teams meet. Instead, NC State's scrub (junior varsity) team met that of the University of North Carolina; the latter won 7-0. In addition, several neutral-site polo games were held between Ivy League schools, including Yale, Princeton, and Harvard. A pre-game write-up for the 1924 NC State game grandiosely called the grass "undoubtedly the best football field in the State," while a 1927 article called the track "the best horse racing outside of Kentucky" [6].

But just as soon as it rose to prominence, the fair fell from grace. Without most of the traditional money-makers, the fair relied heavily on its benefactors to remain financially solvent. Though the official reasons have been lost to time, in January 1926, the fair was quietly dropped. Later that winter, the track facilities doubled down on their equestrian focus; polo and training activities remained the venue's primary focus throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s. The polo club was briefly inactive about 1934-1939, but revived briefly in the fall of 1939 before dissolving oncemore about 1943. It's also worth mentioning at this point that there had long been two polo fields in operation on the Polo Club's property: one (designated Field No. 1) inside the track, and a second (Field No. 2) just northeast of that, roughly at the west end of the facility's third track. Polo was hosted oncemore in 1985, and revived again in 1987 [7].

All that remains is to describe a few of the granular details of the track. First, the tracks: I mentioned earlier that there were three. Two of them loop around the playing field, with the half mile track on the inside and a 5/8-mile track on the outside of it. The former track was used for Standardbred racing and the latter for Thoroughbreds; these both make the nucleus of "the oldest continuously operating equine sports facility in North Carolina." The dual tracks were first documented in the 1920 Sanborn map, but likely was built with the original facility; the NRHP registration for dates them as circa 1915. The third track, a mile-loop, is just southeast of the other two, was built in 1952. That same year, the Pinehurst Driving Club was given a 40-year lease on the track; they briefly sold the land to a development company in 1992, but the Pinehurst Village Council banded together to save the track [8] [2].

The final remaining facet of the facility to cover is the structures. The most prominent among them is the Amphidrome, also known as Fair Barn. Built in 1917, it remains the oldest agricultural exhibit building in North Carolina. It was considerably damaged by a tornado in 1932 and, though repaired, was seen as a mostly utilitarian structure until 1996, when a rehabilitation process which lasted until 2002 began. It now sees use as an events venue, especially for weddings. In terms of athletics the other most important structure was the grandstand, which remained until 1962 when it fell to termine damage; today, temporary portable stands (seating to my estimate roughly 1,000 persons) are brought in for events. Several of the remaining stables and other outbuildings burnt down in a major fire in the mid-1960s [9] [2].

To this day, the grounds host an annual Spring Matinee harness race. They also serve as one of the more prominent horse training grounds in the southeast, with several stables wintering there. In addition to the Amphidrome's use for private events, polocrosse (a hybrid of polo and lacrosse) has been hosted for several years at Field No. 2. Since the Village of Pinehurst purchased the grounds, they are primed to remain a major equestrian hub for many years to come.

Pictures of Pinehurst Race Track