Riverside City History
The Pendergast Connection

Tom Pendergast, infamous political boss of Kansas City during the 1930s, had close ties to Riverside. One of Pendergast's passions was gambling and especially horse racing. He helped return horse racing to Kansas City during the 1930s when a court ruling allowed a limited form of "donation" gambling. In 1928, he and a Kansas City group organized the Riverside Park, taking over the grounds previously used by a dog track. The park was generally known as Pendergast's track, although his name did not appear on the legal papers. However, the names of his business associates and close friends were prominent in the list and the Pendergast association stuck.

Riverside Park, also sometimes known as the Jockey Club or Riverside Downs, was very successful, growing into a large establishment with many windows for "contributions" and "refunds." The track began as a three-quarter mile but was soon enlarged to a full mile. With exciting thoroughbred racing almost all week, at its peak the track drew crowds of nearly 20,000 in a single day. These crowds were a major factor in Pendergast's push for the widening of the highway from a two-lane to a four-lane and the building of the Fairfax Bridge to bring over the Kansas money.

There were two seasons per year for racing; 30 days in the spring and 30 days in the fall at the rate of eight races per day. The track achieved national notoriety in movies and had public appearances by Harry Truman among various others during its years of operation. The park was comprised of about 30 buildings. West of the track was the clubhouse where Pendergast's friends and other elite visitors would sit on the second floor. From there they could see the entire racetrack. North of the clubhouse stood the huge grandstands which surrounded three-fourths of the track. Built mostly of wood, these bleachers held several thousand people and resembled those at the state fair grounds. Just before one race season, fire destroyed the bleachers. But within hours, Pendergast had bulldozers scooping up the debris. He brought in floodlights and a 24-hour work crew. Before opening day new grandstands were complete.

On a normal race day, jockeys were up at 6:00 a.m. to begin exercising the horses and then checking the charts to see what horses they would be riding that afternoon. Jockeys would draw their riding numbers and do their required routines until the 1:00 p.m. weigh-in. A jockey might have ridden five to eight mounts a day, a grueling schedule requiring physical training and constant dieting, plus a thorough knowledge of horses and how to ride them.

The track's livelihood lasted only until 1937, when a new wave of anti-gambling sentiment swept the area and brought laws which outlawed even the "donation" gambling. At the time of Pendergast's downfall in 1939 (due to taxes and other issues), the District Attorney noted that in 1935 Pendergast's horserace bets and losses had forced him to seek income outside his normal resources.

Evidence of the graceful Riverside Park still remains today; several Riverside businesses utilized various structures originally built for the track. To this day, a building south of the new Riverside city maintenance center sports some unusual poles atop the building - flag poles that once graced the club house for the old Riverside jockey club.

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