The site, 12 mi (19 km) from San Francisco, was chosen to circumvent a ban on gambling that had been implemented on March 13, 1899, which closed down the Ingleside track in the southwestern corner of the city.

[3][4] The San Francisco Board of Supervisors (SFBoS) attempted to re-legalize gambling as betting with pool selling in July, but the measure was vetoed by Mayor James D.

Corrigan organized a team of investors, the Western Turf Association, for this purpose; the principal shareholders were banker William H. Crocker and his brother-in-law Prince Andre Poniatowski, a self-styled nobleman[6] who wintered in San Francisco.

[7] The Western Turf Association acquired 150 acres (61 ha) of land in San Bruno and began construction of the grandstand by September 1899, which was estimated to cost US$35,000 (equivalent to $1,280,000 in 2023) and scheduled to open in time for the season in November.

[10][11] Approximately 700 men labored to complete the new track,[12] and by late September, paving work had begun for the road servicing Tanforan Park, requiring 150 cu yd/d (110 m3/d) of gravel.

[14] The 1 mi (1.6 km) oval track was oriented with its major axis lying along an imaginary line between the Golden Gate and Mount Hamilton.

[15] Before races started, the neighboring Bay Area tracks agreed to have half the regular season raced at the California Jockey Club in Oakland (that racetrack opened as the Oakland Trotting Park in 1871[16] at the Emeryville Shellmound in what is now Emeryville),[17][18] and to split the remaining half between Ingleside in San Francisco and the new Tanfaran Park track in San Bruno.

[7] The dispute was exacerbated when Corrigan's entries were refused by the Oakland track; as he had been repudiated by reputable horsemen nationwide, the California Jockey Club wanted nothing to do with him.

Corrigan took revenge "by making Tanforan a haven for men whose methods have made them objectionable at Oakland", which violated the rules of the American Turf Congress.

[25] By August of that year, Corrigan was out after Poniatowski, president of the San Francisco Jockey Club, acquired a controlling interest in both the Ingleside and Tanforan Park tracks.

[27] Williams in turn saw the prolonged session as a violation of the 1899 agreement to split the racing season between the three tracks[28] and vowed to keep the California Jockey Club operating as well.

[31] Williams settled the dispute a few days later by purchasing both Ingleside and Tanforan Park from the San Francisco Jockey Club for US$600,000 (equivalent to $21,970,000 in 2023); Poniatowski admitted that Phelan's veto influenced his decision to sell.

[50] The next day, he flew for 10 mi (16 km) at an altitude of between 200 and 500 ft (61 and 152 m), witnessed by 30,000 spectators, the largest crowd to ever visit Tanforan Park;[51] finally, to close the exhibition, Paulhan took off from Tanforan Park at 3:55 PM on January 26 and flew to Redwood City and back in 31 minutes, 30 seconds, a distance of 30 mi (48 km) at an altitude ranging from 400 to 1,300 ft (120 to 400 m).

[54] Approximately one year later, the San Francisco International Air Meet opened on January 7, 1911, with American aviators Glenn Curtiss, Eugene Burton Ely, and Charles F. Willard scheduled to fly alongside Hubert Latham (France) and James Radley (England).

[50][55]: 45  The first aerial reconnaissance flight was held the next day, as Lt. George E.M. Kelly and Walter Brookins flew at an altitude of 2,000 ft (610 m), unsuccessfully trying to locate ground troops that had taken shelter in wooded areas nearby.

[56] On January 18, Ely took off from Tanforan in his Curtiss Model D airplane and landed on the USS Pennsylvania, an armored cruiser temporarily fitted with a short flight deck and anchored in San Francisco Bay.

[61][62] Beachey also was scheduled to present a game of "aerial leapfrog" with his friend and fellow stunt pilot Horace Kearny, but Kearny was killed ten days before the event opened in an apparent crash while flying in a "hydro-aeroplane" with reporter Chester Lawrence from Newport Beach;[63] Roy Francis performed the stunt with Beachey instead.

[77] The grandstand and stables were dismantled in December 1918 after "rapidly [degenerating] into a home for hobos and spiders" between the 1911 ban and the site's 1917 reactivation as Camp Tanforan, followed by foreclosure proceedings in 1918 against Cal Jockey which forced the property's sale.

[85] Rudolph Spreckels, vice president of the Pacific Coast Jockey Club, confidently declared that no betting was allowed at Tanforan.

[87] Horse racing was planned to be discontinued again after the 1924 spring season; the track had sustained a loss conservatively estimated at US$100,000 (equivalent to $1,780,000 in 2023), making it impossible to operate without legalized betting.

[90] As before, the track turned to auto racing[91] and other events, including considering the installation of a boxing ring,[92] although it was alleged that betting continued on at least one occasion.

Marchbank, Kyne, and Judge Joseph A. Murphy introduced "option" betting after the 1928 season, allowing the track to resume more regular operation.

[95] In 1932, Kyne sold his interest in Tanforan Park[99] and completed the Bay Meadows race track in 1934 in nearby San Mateo.

For example, the track was under the flight path for nearby San Francisco International Airport; jetliners passing overhead would occasionally startle racehorses unfamiliar with the site.

[123] Gilmore, the owner of Tanforan and Golden Gate Fields, died in 1962[124] and 67 acres (27 ha) of the neighboring Navy base was sold to a developer that year for US$1,200,000 (equivalent to $12,090,000 in 2023).

[129] Before demolition could commence, a fire started at the grandstand on the afternoon of Friday, July 31, 1964 first reported at 4:55 P.M. (local) by San Francisco chief deputy sheriff Thomas J. Burns; while driving by, Burns had first seen a "flicker of flame" from a cardboard box, then heard an explosion and watched the flames engulf the building while on the telephone.