Valley Forge Turf Club

Food is OK but the people are a trip. That, apart from gambling on horses, is the best part.

1 star for having good beer, and one more for them putting on the red wings game for me. Nice enough staff but I thought it was more of a sports bar type of thing with good dinner options. The menus basically soup or salad or some crappy sandwich. I was looking for a real dinner but you won’t find it here. The air stinks of stale smoke since you can smoke in here. I found it funny the locals are yelling and swearing t the tv’s…but annoying as well. I won’t be back, but then again I don’t do horse racing which is what this place is really about.

The first rule of Turf Club is that you do not talk about Turf Club. The Second rule of Turf Club, is that you do not talk about Turf Club, and if this is your first time at Turf Club you will gamble. It doesn’t get any manlier than the TC with all the smoking, cursing, and degenerates. Horse racing gamblers are the lowest form degenerate gambling life. Don’t be scared if you’re a noob the regulars will be too busy yelling obscenities at TV screens and answering the voices in their head to bother with you. There’s a bar and the drinks are fairly priced. I’ve never eaten in the restaurant portion, but the snack bar segment is good as far as snack bars go. The Turf Club is fun because it’s something different in the area.

I have to counter Martha M.‘s review. I LOVE the Turf Club, but. it is what it is. It’s second only to actually being at the track! You will see characters that look like they stepped out of a Damon Runyon story. The food is overpriced and far from gourmet. And you only need to know the rudiments of betting to have a good time. (I took one first-​timer to the club and she left $ 400 richer based simply on luck, and another first-​timer and I both won on a photo finish that was too close to call.) Go to watch the ponies and keep the sport alive.

Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb! I never actually thought that I would be one of those women who would find some enjoyment in entering a horse race betting establishment where the average age of patrons is somewhere between the age of 70 and 6 feet under. However, a small vice in me always wondered what actually happened inside those walls… Yea, I’ve heard stories and I am sure you have too. And upon entering, my preconceived ideas were right on target. A co-​worker and I enter through the doors and were greeted by a 70-​something platinum blonde woman whose main job I guess was to be a «greeter» similar to the ones employed by Walmart. From there, we entered a wall made of smoke so much so that I couldn’t see actually where I was going…(simple exaggeration… but you know what I mean). Wall to wall blue collar workers with their eyes fixated on one of 20 televisions aglow with a separate horse race on each… all around us. Then utter confusion and panic set in… what do we do? how do we bet? why are all these people looking at us? do they have a women’s bathroom? do they actually serve food here? what is the director’s room and how do you gain entrance? what is a trifecta? Ahhh so many questions I felt dizzy. We made our way up to the counter where a nice woman helped us figure this all out. We had to buy a $ 3.25 program just so we could actually see the details of each of the races for the day. Then she tried to give us the cliff notes version of horse betting… Yes, that’s right… we didn’t remember any of it… and ended up betting based on how funny the horse’s name was or what color shirt the jockey was wearing… you know typical chick thinking. After 4 races, I actually netted $ 5.00 after winning one race when BIZARRO WORLD came in first (I took away $ 55 from that race). But the longer I stayed, the more I understood how people can get hooked on it. Suffice it to say, I don’t think that I will make it one of my hobbies but I did utterly enjoy the ability to people watch in this joint.