Having split North America into two distinct countries – United States and Canada – the review of Canadian racetracks will be undertaken first on a province by province basis, continuing with another of the Maritime provinces.
Before the earliest and later modern tracks appeared in New Brunswick, monte trotting under saddle commenced in the 1850’s at Courtenay Bay, Saint John.
The only track now operating constantly in New Brunswick is that of Exhibition Park Raceway, Saint John (race Saturdays) although Fredericton (raced twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays), Moncton (Thursday and Saturday nights) and Woodstock have had their moments over the past few decades. These tracks used to race twice weekly all summer long in New Brunswick. The introduction of a casino in Moncton was likely a major reason for the decline in harness racing in New Brunswick.
Former tracks
During the first half of the twentieth century around twenty tracks were operating, this being among the peak years of harness racing in New Brunswick notably from the end of the First World War (1918) until the beginning of the Second World War (1939). In 1919 new tracks opened or were operating such as Island Park in Woodstock, Bathurst, Campbellton and Sussex Speedway.
The list below shows the dates of operation of historic tracks in New Brunswick no longer operating, some to be discussed in greater detail. Not all of them raced each year often with years or even decades between race meetings. Most if not all tracks were closed or used as military training centres during the two World Wars, especially World War II.
NEW BRUNSWICK HISTORIC RACE TRACKS
Andover (1947-1948)
Barachois, Ocean Park (1967-1968)
Bathurst (1917-1941)
Bristol (1899-1900)
Bouctouche (1937-1991)
Campbellton (1916-1939)
Chatham (1903-1982) and 1994
Claire (1921-1938)
Dorchester (1927-1937)
Edmundston (1900-1946)
Elgin (dates unknown, track record set in 1922)
Grand Falls (dates unknown, track record set in 1907)
Havelock (dates unknown, track record set in 1935)
Hope River (dates unknown, track record set in 1888)
Island Park (1919-1967)
Memramcook (1892-1893)
Moncton Driving Park (1881-)
Moncton Raceway (1946-1962)
Moncton – Brunswick Downs (1963-1981)
Moncton – Champlain Raceway (1984-1991)
Port Elgin (1896-1957, 1994-1996)
Sackville (1908-1946)
Shediac (1886-1938)
St. Stephen (1886-1944)
Sussex Corner (1899-1909)
Sussex Speedway (1918-1920, 1944-1950)
Woodstock Trotting Park (1881- 1909)
Woodstock, Island Park (1919-1967)
Island Park –
Island Park racetrack was located in the Saint John River between Woodstock and Grafton. A unique seventy acre island with a long history of being a camping ground and base for salmon fishing for the Maliseet peoples, later fertile lands used for farming in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
By 1905, local farmer Charles Rogers owned it having built an approach road from the main bridge to the island. In 1909, it was purchased by the Connell estate with a view to forming a free public park for Woodstock citizens with grandstand, baseball diamond, picnic area, miniature railway and other recreational amenities. The Carleton County Agricultural Society leased the central part of the island for their Exhibitions and harness racing in 1918 for a perpetual annual cost of $1.
The track and Exhibition buildings cost a purported $50,000 to construct. Henry DeWitt and Bob Hamilton built a racetrack that was reputed “…to be the best this side of Springfield, Mass. The grandstand which is capable of seating two thousand people has been erected. One of the features of this grandstand is the fact that from it the hoofs of every horse can be seen all the way round the track.”
When Island Park opened for harness racing on 19 August 1919, it was “the only racetrack in the Maritime Provinces with the regulation width of sixty-five feet in the homestretch. It had been well named by the horsemen of the Province, the Parlor Track.”
The first race in Maritime harness racing history for a purse of $1,000 was held during this first meeting at a time when driving clubs flourished.
Horse racing was not conducted during the Second World War from 1939-1946 when soldiers of the Carleton York and North Shore Regiments lived on the island. Many of the provincial agricultural fairs had their grounds taken over by the military. Island Park continued to host harness racing until 1967 when the island was completely submerged by the construction of the Mactaquac dam.
Moncton –
Moncton Raceway opened in 1946 on a half mile circuit with a new name and management team overseeing a change to Brunswick Downs on Saturday 15 June 1963 (Moncton Driving Park 1881 – was an earlier track in this area).
The Moncton Daily Times reported the opening of Brunswick Downs as follows :
Moncton and district harness racing fans are in for a top-notch season if the caliber of racing at the local oval comes anywhere near Brunswick Downs enthusiastic start. Since the company was formed early last winter and bought out Moncton Raceway February 2, 1963, a “sell”, the likes of which has never been seen by local fans, has been on.
Brunswick Downs, headed by Ingham Palmer, Jr., a former radio announcer in Saint John and track announcer at Saint John’s Exhibition Park, has several prominent names listed in its directory. Among them are F. Gordon MacLeod of St. Martins, vice-president and E.A. Keyes of Moncton as secretary-treasurer. Directors include J.A. Keefe of Moncton, J. Edward Murphy, QC. of Moncton, Harvey Hicks and Ingham Palmer, Sr. both of Moncton.
Much has been done and much is planned at the oval to give fans the best in the “trot and pace” sport and also the best in comfort while watching. Local fans will have an opportunity to see for themselves, the renovations made up to this time when the track swings into action on Saturday, June 15, 1963.
Though the track has changed tremendously since work began some six weeks ago much more is in store.
As Palmer Jr. says, “Most of our improvements have been in places where the public cannot see them.”
Palmer added that Brunswick Downs had hoped to give the preference in renovating the grandstand area but due to the deplorable stable conditions this took preference. Of the 101 stalls at the track, more than 70 required new roofs and floors and of this number most required extensive wall and door repairs. Work in this area took up much time but horsemen now have better facilities in which to stable their charges. Work in the stables will continue for some time with the erection of 36 new stalls in the offing. The area formerly occupied by the hanger, which was demolished two months ago, will be the site of these stalls.
In front of the grandstand patrons will readily notice the removal of a stock car track and the resulting leveling of the infield area. In time grass and flowers will grace the area once occupied by the stock car circuit. A new tote board, measuring 22 feet long and only five feet high, has been erected in the centerfield. Eventually a horseshoe shaped winner’s circle will be installed to the right of the tote board. Around the track the old hub rail has been torn down and replaced by a new one. A great deal of work on the track surface has been done. Due to the amount of snow fall this past winter and frost heaves, much of the track required work. In the upper turn before the stretch, 400 feet of drainage tile was installed around the outer rim and deep ditches around the inner rim of the turn.
The application of paint in the grandstand area has made the area brighter and prettier. Seats have been painted yellow, red and blue. A white and yellow job to the pari-mutual section was also added. Considerable work to the mutuals has resulted in changes for both the workers and bettors. In days gone by the bettor had to squint through chicken wire as he placed his wager. Now this barrier has been destroyed and replaced by an open counter running the full length of the betting section.
Improvements have also been made to the track’s lighting system. Around the outside of the track repairs have been made to the high fences which serve as a background as the horses flash by. The fence, along the full length of the backstretch and around the lower turn, has been repaired.
All starts at the track will be handled by one of the smartest and most efficient starting gates in the Maritimes. A gleaming white convertible, customized to accommodate the wings of the gate, will be used. The qualities of this gate will assure the starter better control of the horses.
Among future plans is a patio near the grandstand and other not-yet-revealed renovations and improvements.
Palmer Jr. himself stated that, “The Downs is a long way from being the most elaborate track in the Maritimes but I think we’ll, in time, have the smartest operation of any. And added improvements will give us a track that shouldn’t take a back seat to any.”
Brunswick Downs played an integral part in the Maritime province’s harness racing scene until a fire destroyed the grandstand on 30 August 1981. Arson was the cause of the fire, the second such attempt within a month. It was a further three years (1984) before Champlain Raceway was built on the same site with a new state of the art grandstand and five-eighths mile racetrack which closed in 1991.
Woodstock –
Annual harness racing on Woodstock’s half mile track at Cornell Park Raceway in August is a tradition for the provincial harness racing industry. Racing began here in 1968 and continues still over half a century later. Cornell Park is named after one of Woodstock’s most famous citizens Charles Connell, a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Carleton County from 1846-1867 and appointed to the position of Postmaster General in 1859.
Connell Park was not the first location for horse racing in Woodstock although many believe Island Park was, this was not the case. The Carleton County Agricultural Society purchased a small piece of property in 1878 part of the site where the Valley Railway Station would eventually stand in 1912 at the end of Broadway Street in Lower Woodstock. There they held their annual Exhibition (the agricultural exhibition had its origins on the grounds of the old Court House in Upper Woodstock beginning in 1852).
The purchase of an additional fourteen acres adjoining the future Valley Railway Station enabled a harness racing track known as the Woodstock Trotting Park to be laid out
The first race meeting held on 1 July 1881 consisted of three races with the final race for Open trotters, best three out of five one-mile heats. After two of the horses were disqualified for false starts, Bright trotting flawlessly, won three straight heats in 2:40, 2:40¼ and 2:41.
Race meetings were sporadic over the years but by 1904 the Exhibition was established as an annual event with harness racing featured. Over the next eight years the Carleton County Agricultural Society continued to hold its Exhibition and harness racing. In 1912 they were forced to sell the property with the laying of the Valley Railway and the erection of the Valley Railway Station. This former site is currently occupied by a lumber yard located on Phillips Drive (off Charles Street) which ends where the homestretch would have begun. The homestretch was where the Canadian National rail tracks were laid.
The Carleton County Agricultural Society purchased eighteen acres on Smiths Flats, located down the River Road in Woodstock. A racetrack was surveyed and preparations made to build a new Exhibition Park complete with new Exhibition buildings and grandstand. The onset of WWI in 1914 postponed and later cancelled efforts to complete the project although local recreational horse racing continued at this location during the war years. It was about this time that the Woodstock Driving Club was established (1914 or thereabouts) by Dewitt and Hamilton.
Connell Park Raceway opened at its current location on 25 July 1968. The weekly newspaper The Bugle reported after the track held its first Old Home Week race meeting :
“The official opening of the new Connell Park was held on Thursday, August 1. If there is a single event that has brought big crowds to Old Home Week, it’s the grand and noble past-time of harness racing. This week the Monday and Thursday evening cards will have an added impact as they will be staged in the spanking new raceway. Sure there will be a nostalgic ache in a lot of hearts at the thought of the famed “Parlor Track” lying under a mantle of water down in the river. The Island’s Parlor Track brought a lot of thrills to race-goers here and it served the community so well over so many years.”
On 2 August 2019, the first live racing in two years took place at the Woodstock oval with officials with Horse Racing New Brunswick and the Woodstock chapter of the NBSBOA (Woodstock Driving Club) scheduling the days race card. Feature race was the Kelti Burnett Memorial Pace for $6,500 sponsored by the McCain Family, Corey Ford and Horse Racing New Brunswick. A $50 per horse ship-in fee was provided by Woodstock officials. With one race day held in 2021 (6 August), whilst somewhat tenuous, the Woodstock Driving Club continues to be the force driving the sport in the Woodstock area.
Fredericton –
Fredericton’s first recorded horse race meeting was held in 1816 when locals raced horses from a large pine tree near Phyllis Creek (located in Odell Park) to Clarks Corner on Brunswick and King Streets, near to where today’s track is located. In the 1820’s a recreational area located on a large area of Saunders field (south of George St and west of York St) had saddle and other races contested prior to any formal track being laid out, this became the Fredericton Race Course.
On 19 February 1827, members of the New Brunswick Agricultural and Emigrant Society (also known as the York County Agricultural Society) voted in favour of holding a Provincial Cattle Show on the grounds of the Fredericton Race Course on 9 October laying the foundation for a lasting relationship between the Fredericton Exhibition and horse racing.
In 1863 the York County Agricultural Society provided Fredericton with the one mile York Driving Club’s Fredericton Trotting track located above York Street, west of Aberdeen Street which today includes the old Hartt Boot and Shoe Factory building. It was a course for saddle horses with a grandstand for five hundred patrons, harness racing was introduced to Fredericton in 1873.
The Fredericton track that opened in 1863 was lost to railway construction in 1886 when a new railway was built across the racetrack. Subscriptions raised by the York County Trotting Association on 15 September 1886 enabled an area of twenty acres to be leased from the O’Dell estate on which a new half mile track was formed. The Fredericton Exhibition Raceway established by the newly formed Fredericton Trotting Park Association opened for operations on 28 September 1887 at its present location (over one hundred and thirty years ago) which was nearby the earlier track. It was stated that “Harness racing becomes a major player in sporting circles.”
The Fredericton Raceway is part of a massive exhibition ground with the Fredericton Raceway and Exhibition starting life as the Fredericton Race Course Grounds. Due to the success of the racecourse grounds and the surrounding festivities, the venue became the choice for annual fairs.
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Opening day “On Wednesday, September 28, 1887, the new track of the Fredericton Park Association was opened under the most auspicious circumstances. It is complete in all its details and nothing has been left undone by the enterprising members of the association to fit the course equal if not superior to any in the province. The grandstand was well filled with ladies and gentlemen and a large number of carriages, containing leading citizens and their families, were drawn up in front of the grandstand.”
In 1922 Fredericton Exhibition Ltd took over the Fredericton Park Association assuming responsibility for the racetrack. A trio of harness racing’s greatest performers of their era were assembled by the Fredericton Driving and Sporting Club at Fredericton Raceway on 20 September 1923 to compete in a match race for a $3,000 prize. An estimated 20,000 spectators observed the fastest stallion Single G (1:58½), fastest mare Margaret Dillon (1:58¼TT) and fastest gelding Sir Roch (1:59¼TT) of the time race. Single G won both heats in 2:04¾, a Maritime record and 2:05 with the combined times establishing a Canadian two-heat record.
There was no racing during the war years 1940 – 46 at Fredericton with the military using the track as a training ground for soldiers, known as the New Brunswick Training Centre. On 5 July 1954 racing commenced under lights for the first time. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip visited Fredericton Raceway on 28 July 1959 witnessing their first Canadian harness race having previously attended a harness race meeting at Addington, Christchurch (NZMTC) on their tour of New Zealand in 1954 (Thursday 21 January).
Race winning times at Fredericton have included – first sub two minute time recorded in Maritime history on 19 July 1982 when Clipper Seelster (dr Willard “The Wizzard” Carr) won in 1:59.3; the 1:55 barrier was equalled by Shannon Commander on 26 June 1993, then fastest on a half mile track in the Maritime provinces; Mcapulco (dr Brodie MacPhee) won the Walter Dale Memorial on 2 July 2012 in a then track record 1:54.2.
In recent years Fredericton Raceway and Exhibition (FREX) facilities include the half mile track, stabling for 130 horses, covered seating for 1,200 spectators and open seating for 200 people. There are two restaurants – Winner’s Canteen and the Winner’s Lounge. The track has simulcasting three nights a week with the live racing season running from May to the end of September. The general admission fee includes access to the clubhouse.
Also included is a cattle barn, heavy horse barn, coliseum and the exhibition centre. The Capital Exhibit Centre is centrally-located and multi-functional including 18,000 square feet of display area, canteen and washroom facilities.
Following a two year absence, live racing returned to Fredericton Raceway on Sunday 8 September 2019, the last date the track has hosted live racing. The afternoon programme provided eight races highlighted by the $3,500 Jennie & Joe Chippin Memorial. The track did not race in 2020 or 2021 although there are still horses training to race at fellow New Brunswick racetrack Exhibition Park Raceway in Saint John. The Fredericton track in the provincial capital of New Brunswick will always be known as ‘Canada’s oldest’ harness racing site. The track is controlled by FREX whose overall future plans for Fredericton Raceway whilst unknown will not include racing as part of whatever takes place.
Exhibition Park Raceway (EPR), Saint John
Horse Racing New Brunswick is the only approved harness racing track operating in the province of New Brunswick. Racing is conducted under the rules and regulations of the Atlantic Provinces Harness Racing Commission and official statistics provided by Standardbred Canada.
The half mile Exhibition Park in East Saint John is New Brunswick’s principal track and only currently operational venue. It originally opened one hundred and fifty years ago as Moosepath Park in 1871 and renamed Exhibition Park after being redeveloped following the Second World War.
The Exhibition Association of the City and County of Saint John established in 1889 is a non-profit organization hosting fall (autumn) fairs and agricultural exhibitions for the residents of Saint John. It was first held at the Barrack Green in Saint John’s South End where it took place until 1938. Cancelled during World War II and resuming in 1954 when it was relocated to its present location in Saint John’s East End.
The annual Saint John’s Atlantic National Exhibition held at Exhibition Park in the first week of September features local art, crafts, horticulture and livestock exhibits together with family entertainment and midway amusement park rides. Other year round entertainment offerings include Exhibition Bingo (hosted every Tuesday and Sunday), live weekly harness racing during the spring to fall season and daily simulcasts of live races.
The Exhibition Association, a non-profit organization under the leadership of an unpaid volunteer Board of Directors, contributes to a number of non-profit organizations during the year and rents its premises for a number of fundraising events on a cost recovery basis. The Board of Directors is working with various stakeholders and volunteers on the potential development of a 107,000 sq ft multipurpose building that would include two indoor turf fields and an indoor running track.
Exhibition Park Raceway is located on McAllister Drive, Saint John, New Brunswick. Since 2018 (previously at Fredericton), Canada’s oldest free-for-all race, the Walter Dale Invitational is held at Exhibition Park (not run in 2020 due to COVID; held Saturday 31 July in 2021) together with the Milton Downey Stakes, Dawn Bremner Memorial and Maritimer Stake. Simulcast wagering is provided by Horse Racing New Brunswick in Saint John at the Sulky Room Lounge, Dieppe and in Fredericton. The EPR track record for pacers was set by three year old Dustylanegoliath on 31 July 2021 (1:53.0).
The Exhibition Park half mile anticlockwise track is 75ft wide with a home straight of 630ft (210 yds) in length allowing for eight standing start positions. Admission including parking, Clubhouse seating (capacity 300) and grandstand (capacity 5,000) is free for patrons. Race meetings are generally held on Saturdays from May to September with eighteen meetings held in 2021 and ten planned for 2022. Disused parts of the track showing their age include the old notice board, a relic of pre electronic days.
Next Article : Canada – Maritime province – Nova Scotia
Peter Craig
13 April 2022
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
