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The racing at Evangeline is strictly minor league. Instead, he put a couple of betting windows out by the nightly tailgate party. The future looked bleak, when, at the 11th hour, the state granted permission for the track to rebuild as a ''racino,'' or combination racetrack and casino. Sellers, who won his first professional race at Evangeline Downs in There's a bittersweet atmosphere at Evangeline these days. Or you can walk a few feet down the rail and hear the losing jockeys, faces spattered with dirt, offering excuses as they dismount. Most people know about gumbo and zydeco, but to pick up on the horseracing fever, you have to go to Evangeline Downs, just north of Lafayette. General parking is free. The money tap has been open and flowing freely ever since. When the horses cruise along the backstretch, you can see the colored silks of the jockeys reflected in the infield lake, home to a nutria that occasionally waddles onto the grass. Over the years, new competitors emerged. At seven-eighths of a mile, the track is small. State lotteries and new casinos also soaked up gambling money that might otherwise have gone to the now-teetering Evangeline, which was being sold and resold at an alarming rate. To get a taste, I booked a former sharecropper's cabin from Cajun Country Cottages, out in the country near Breaux Bridge, a few miles east of Lafayette. This is racing at the grass roots. Like many horseracing fans, I had not been following the sport for too long before I noticed that a lot of trainers and jockeys scattered around the country have French names. Thoroughbred racing runs until Sept. Yount, the new executive director for racing operations, tried to lure the freeloaders into the track but gave up. Yount, managing to keep a straight face.

It's a tossup which comes first. Like Saratoga or Churchill Downs, Evangeline attracts a family crowd, but the entertainment is small-town, and therein lies the charm.

By any rational measure, it's a good move. Racetrack is on the right. Even the names that don't sound French often turn out to be Cajun. Men in cowboy hats stroll the asphalt-paved apron in front of the track, sip a beer and argue about the next race.

During the thoroughbred season, when the thoroughbreds run on weekends, the first race goes off just before 7 p. It's not glamorous, but like the local cuisine, it visit web page savor and spice.

Parents friday night live concert series evangeline downs racetrack casino may 31 their children and turn them loose.

But like Ebbets Field or the Polo Grounds, the place holds a lot of memories for people in Lafayette. The ground-floor snack bar would fit right in at a drive-in. Evangeline will run thoroughbred races until Aug.

The action will move to Opelousas, about 15 miles up Interstate 49, to the new Evangeline Downs, a casino and racetrack built from the ground up by Peninsula Gaming Company, owners of the Diamond Jo riverboat casino in Dubuque, Iowa.

The John Henry Room, in the racetrack's glass-enclosed second floor, is about as glamorous as things get. You can bet on one thing: That will be the end of the longest-running tailgate party in American racing history.

The purses, fed by gambling revenues, will increase, attracting more and better horses. Belmont Park, the largest, is a mile and a half.

At the end of October, when the last horse crosses the finish line, that will, indeed, be the finish, after 38 years.

Most of America's major tracks run their dirt races around a one-mile oval. Already, gambling revenue has allowed Evangeline to double its purses from last year. Some people never even place a bet, like the young father in a cowboy hat I saw with a little girl wearing her own pint-sized cowboy hat.

He can recount the track's glory days, when it was the state's only racetrack west of the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. The new track will have races on the grass as well as on the dirt. The restaurant, which offers a Cajun-oriented menu, serves as a reminder that no one goes to a racetrack for a great meal.

Lots of the horses are trained by their owners, who may race no more than two or three of them in the course of a season. Higher for larger parties.

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Then it's on to Opelousas in , and a new, much richer Evangeline Downs. As a result, the Lafayette crowd feels very close to the racing action. Before the races, as horses are led into the paddock for saddling, the local fans chat over the rail with trainers and jockeys. The purse money is a pittance compared with racetracks like Santa Anita, Churchill Downs or Belmont, and it's a pretty safe bet that not too many of the local horses are headed for the Kentucky Derby. Just after the race, anyone can walk over to the wooden rail by the winner's circle and listen as jockey, trainer and owners celebrate. Both of them had a ball watching the horses all night long. A racing calendar is at www. It's half an eggplant, breaded and fried, then filled with shrimp, crawfish and crab in a thick sauce Louis. The facilities are not deluxe. The Daily Racing Form is filled with surnames like Desormeaux, Guidry, Bourque, Lanerie and LeBlanc, and most of their owners come from the heart of Acadiana, where boys as young as 8 or 9 ride in match races at the bush tracks scattered all over the area. Following signs to racetrack, turn right at the end of exit and left on highway service road. The old track building, truth to tell, is decrepit. One pirogue, plus a cup of duck and andouille gumbo, should carry anyone through at least the sixth race. The best reason to visit the John Henry Room is its host, Fred Girouard, who has been at the track since opening day in and can recount just about every race run there, from John Henry's surprise victory in the Futurity in to the day in that Hallowed Dreams won her 14th race in a row, breaking the American record for consecutive victories by a filly. Shane Sellers and Robby Albarado, two of the country's top riders, come from little towns near Lafayette, and like most of their fellow Cajun jockeys, they started their careers at Evangeline, the only track in America where, when the starting gate opens, the track announcer doesn't say ''They're off! David A. The racing style can often be rough and ready. Teenagers come for a Saturday-night date.