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The Agua Caliente Racetrack opened on 12/28/1929 at a cost of $2.5 million, replacing an earlier Tijuana horse track. The racetrack and its ancillary buildings, was part of a larger recreational complex, the Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel, which opened in 06/1928. The track was known for its fine grandstand, where spectators watched both horse and greyhound racing. A syndicate of four investors combined to fund Agua Caliente, Baron Long, Wirt Bowman (1874-1949), James Croffoth and Abelardo L. Rodriguez (1889-1967), a powerful politician, served, while construction occurred, as the Military Commander of Northern Baja California (1921-1929), Governor of the North District of the Federal Territory of Baja California (1923-1930) and, later, as President of Mexico (1932-1934). Los Angeles architect, Wayne McAllister (1907-2000), designed the Racetrack, Casino and Hotel, while the Los Angeles firm, Wurster Construction Company, had the contract for the building. According to a Los Angeles Times article of 12/06/1929, "Work [by Wurster Construction] at Agua Caliente includes the building of a reinforced concrete grandstand, stables, paddock, reservoir, clubhouse, hotel, bungalow and help dormitory." (See :Local Firm at Work on Large Jobs," Los Angeles Times, 12/06/1929, p. D2.) The Mexican President that followed Rodriguez, socialist reformer Lázaro Cárdenas (1895-1970), passed legislation limiting gambling, forcing the casino and its hotel out of business; the racetrack, however, survived the ban. In 2011, the track still accommodated greyhound racing but not horses.

A fire gutted the first grandstand in 1971. It was rebuilt subsequently.

Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

PCAD id: 17407