Tropical Park

This guide to Tropical Park in Miami opens with a 1953 plane crash that killed Henry Straus, president of the racetrack built here by Prohibition-era bootlegger Bill Dwyer in 1931. It follows four decades of winter thoroughbred racing, an unusual 1960s experiment with a synthetic track surface called Tartan Turf, and the Cleveland gambler who took over running the place after Straus's death. Listen near the old stable buildings, still standing by the equestrian center.