At the beginning of the 1979-80 Tampa Bay Downs meeting, when the track was still known as Florida Downs and Sam F. Davis was the president, Sam hired Ocalan David Goldman to act as publicity, advertising and marketing director for the Oldsmar track. David had years of experience in the field in New England, and then at old Tropical Park, Calder Race Course and Hialeah Park in South Florida.  

    At the time, before the advent of simulcasting, the track was averaging less than $300,000 a day in handle and Sam was determined to do something about it. Aside from his salary, Sam told David he would give him a bonus of $10,000 if David could get Florida Downs over the $300,000 mark. David's first move was to have the maintenance crew nail signs on telephone poles all over town giving directions to the track. The track announcer then was a young Tom Durkin, destined to become one of the nation's best a short time later. 

    Among the new ideas David came up with was to name races after many of the local personalities from newspapers, TV and radio stations and invite them to present the winner's trophy after their respective races. It generated a great deal of publicity from each of the media organizations when their presenter's race came up.   

    (Another genius idea David instituted was to hire a racing writer named Bernie Dickman to conduct handicapping seminars on the ground floor, first on Saturdays and years later on Sundays after Sunday racing was approved).

    With two weeks remaining in the meeting, which ended in April in those days, the daily average handle was up to about $309,000 a day and the bonus appeared to be safe. But - it was that time when the snowbirds began heading north, and by closing day the average dropped to $297,000. Goodbye bonus. 

    Then, the track was turned over to Stella Thayer and George Steinbrenner for the 1980-81 season and it became Tampa Bay Downs, with myriad improvements. That partnership lasted six years before Mrs. Thayer bought out the New York Yankees owner, and the track has prospered ever since, becoming one of the simulcasting leaders in the country.

    On Sam F. Davis day a few weeks ago, with a crowd of 5,401, there was on-track handle of $552,673, while ITW handle reached $419,695 and ISW handle an eye-opening $11,198,488. That's an all-sources figure of $12,170,856. The same day, Gulfstream's all-sources handle was $11,853,973.

    Sam F. Davis would be proud. So would David Goldman.

    As the old Virginia Slims commercial used to say, "You've come a long way, baby."