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Doris Clark spent her 50th birthday at Rillito Park Race Track, betting on horses with her sister and mother and staring into the paddock between races.

Earlier in the week, she and her sister, Dianne Roberts, planned the jaunt from Green Valley to Tucson. They did not grow up around horse racing, and surely are not subscribers to the Daily Racing Form.

Going to the races was something to do in the 70-degree weather Saturday.

"I'm up a couple bucks so far," Roberts said. "We play little bets. Nothing serious."

The same could be said for most of the 6,000 or so fans at the track on North First Avenue only a few furlongs from the Rillito River. The track figured to take in about $100,000 in bets Saturday, one of the eight days of its shortened season this year.

Only about 5 percent of the audience bets serious money, said Jim Collins, the track's racing secretary, announcer and handicapper — whose mother happens to sell his tip sheet just inside the front gate.

"Most people aren't going to bet more than $2 a race," he said.

The track is open each Saturday and Sunday in February, shortened in past years because of a cash flow problem spurned by the loss of simulcast racing this year.

Despite its rich history, Rillito is simply a comfortable afternoon out for Tucsonans.

The competition is not great — horses are the equivalent of Single-A baseball players, Collins said — but it is a good time.

Clark and Roberts ponder their afternoon when a bugle sounds — the call to post.

Last chance to bet.

"Sorry, we gotta go," Clark said, as they raced toward the pari-mutuel window.

Jockeys pass in and out of the hot box, steam billowing from the room each time the door is opened. They sit in the sauna two hours before the day's races to cut weight.

Daniel Gutierrez does not want any part of it.

A few years away from retirement, the Vail resident figured out about 20 years ago how to control his weight sensibly. He eats salads and fruit to keep his weight down. When he allows himself a steak, it's usually on Mondays — four full days from the next race.

Gutierrez, 51, works out a few of the 200 or so horses at the adjacent stable during the week for a steady paycheck and to stay in shape. If he feels muscle growth, however, he slows down; muscle mass increases body weight.

Gutierrez, who weighs 123 1/2 pounds, rode seven horses last Saturday and six on Sunday. On a good weekend, he'll pull in about $1,000.

Gutierrez rides at about 10 different tracks, most of them in the Arizona State Fair circuit that has outposts in Duncan, Safford, Douglas, Sonoita, Kingman, Flagstaff, St. Johns and Globe.

The money's not great, but it is close to home — and his new bride, Cathy.

"We call it burnout," he said. "If you're at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, you do seven months then go to Colorado and then New Mexico. After 30 years it does catch up to you."

Gutierrez has a healthy respect for the sport. About 15 years ago, Gutierrez flew off a stumbling horse during a race in Colorado, breaking his wrist, collapsing a lung, separating his right shoulder and breaking his ribs. He was in a coma for three days and did not return to racing for 18 months.

"Out there, it's being safe and not being stupid," he said. "One bad move can kill you. Your body will go before the horse's does."

Gutierrez respects Rillito, too. His father, Richard, was a jockey who first rode at the track in 1952. Even today, Daniel will bump into oldtimers who remember his father, who died after a stroke about five years ago.

"It still inspires me," he said, "when I hear his name come up."

History wafts out of Rillito faster than cigar smoke.

In 1943, UA student and quarter horse breeder Rukin Jelks carved the track out of his backyard; when it opened, it became the first regulated quarter horse track in America.

That year, the track became the first to feature a three-eighths-mile straightaway off the final turn, in the opposite direction of the finish line. The "chute" — which allows quarter horses to run a straight track — was adopted across the country.

Years later, the track was the first to use a photo finish.

All of which makes the track's pending destruction alarming for Rillito patrons and workers.

Pima County plans on turning the track into an $18 million soccer complex after the 2010 horse racing season; a 1984 voter referendum guaranteed the track will be able to operate until then.

The future plan depends on voters approving a bond package. Pima County officials, however, seem convinced enough of the track's pending demise.

The county spent $100,000 late last year to repair parts of the grandstand and barns damaged by a July storm. In November, Pima County administrator Chuck Huckelberry told the Star the county was taking a "calculated risk" by not bringing the track up to current code during the repairs "because the whole thing is going to be demolished in a couple years."

Today, the track's infield is lined with soccer goals; kids play there during the week.

"I think people in Tucson are foolish for wanting to discontinue racing here," said Bobbie Johnston, the track's clerk of scales and clock manager. "They've got enough damn soccer fields."

At age 70, Johnston dresses like a vaudevillian. Saturday, he wore a fat pink tie and cream coat while weighing in the jockeys. Johnston was a jockey himself for 40 years, racing at 5 feet 5 inches, 110 pounds.

Now he works at Rillito and New Mexico's Ruidoso Downs and Zia Park (Hobbs, N.M.) every year before returning to his ranch in tiny Crane, Texas.

"There's a lot of history in this racetrack," he said. "Like I said, the damn city fathers are stupid. I don't care if you write that down."

Collins takes a far more measured approach, saying the track is "willing to bend over backward" to make a joint soccer field and racing complex work.

"Why can't we both be here?" he said.

He wishes people could see the work that goes into each race day, to look beyond the façade of the aging track.

Dan Prince thinks that's part of the charm.

During the week, the 54-year-old lives in Henderson, Nev., and serves as the state's deputy administrator for juvenile services. On the weekends, he travels to California and Arizona as the owner of a stable of horses — including Brilliantcee, who raced Saturday.

His co-workers ask him where he is off to — Hollywood Park? Del Mar? — and tells them Tucson.

"They say, 'Is there a racetrack in Tucson?'

"I say, 'Yeah! It's Rillito Park, one of the greatest venues in the country.' "

Prince keeps a straight face. Sure, he likes being in the winner's circle at some of the ritziest tracks in Southern California. But he will take Rillito and its blend of thoroughbreds, quarter horses and mixed breeds.

"This is definitely racing for the folks, racing for the rest of us," he said. "This is really what horse racing is all about. For most people in this country, it's about county fairs, and it's about small venues like this.

"It's about atmosphere and hot dogs and Cokes and having a good time."

On at least one Saturday, that's all that seemed to matter — controversy and worry staved off like a horse fading down the stretch.

"It's the epitome of old-time horse racing — big crowds, but you get up close and personal with the jockeys and the horses," Prince said. "It's just a perfect way to spend an afternoon."