RACETRACKS OF THE WORLD – NORTH AMERICA : CANADA (ONTARIO – part three)

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. This is the third article dealing with the province of Ontario, Canada’s busiest as regards harness racing.

FURTHER MORE RECENTLY CLOSED ONTARIO TRACKS –

Windsor Raceway –

Windsor Raceway and Slots (750 machines) was a 5/8 of a mile standardbred harness racing track located in Windsor, a city in southwestern Ontario on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States.

Track founders were Lawrence LoPatin and Al Siegel, owner of the Elmwood Casino (a Las Vegas type showplace although it didn’t have any gambling) with Armstrong Jones and Company, Thomas W Itin CEO, underwriting the October 1964 CA$3,150,000 offering. The tracks total cost was approximately CA$7,000,000 with equity and debt arranged for it by Thomas W Itin. Windsor Raceway was officially opened on 22 October 1965 and pacer Castle Direct driven by Fred Roloson won the first race in a time of 2:10. The opening day’s attendance consisted of 5,136 patrons with a nine race card resulting in $194,204 spent in betting, a considerable days takings for those days.

Windsor Raceway had a state of the art all-weather Tartan racing surface that enabled racing in inclement weather (winter racing) serving both thoroughbred and standardbred interests until the late seventies when the track was upgraded from a relatively flat tartan surface to a banked corner with spiral graded limestone surfacing used until the tracks closure. Hall of Fame trainer Bob McIntosh called Windsor Raceway “a showplace” of harness racing, the mecca, the palace, as opulent on the backside as the frontside.

Al Siegel was President and general manager of the raceway and in the early years the track attracted celebrities such as Sophie Tucker, Frankie Laine and the Will Mastin Trio featuring Sammy Davis Jr who were chauffeured to the track to appear on the in-house television show. Track announcer Marty Adler recalled “It was the only game in town and people came out in droves. They had ushers taking you to your seat and then they had ushers checking to see if you had a ticket if you were sitting in one of the seats. It got to the point where everything was a premium at the racetrack and it was an exciting place to go — it was the place to race. Horsemen wanted to race there… they were treated well. All the barns were heated. There was a great cafeteria. It was a pleasure to actually be at the racetrack. If you were stabled at Windsor Raceway you never had to leave the grounds. Everything was there for you — the blacksmiths, the veterinarians, the food to eat. In later years, they put up a dormitory for some of the grooms. It was a little community all to itself.”

Master horseman Bob McIntosh – “The facility was so great. Al Siegel knew how to take care of the patrons. He was into entertainment. The service was first class, the food was first class. The big gamblers were looked after and all the reporters were looked after. He did a great job managing that side and (his partners) did a great job on the other side.”

Hall of Famer and current Hambletonian Society President John Campbell – “It was brand new and built so efficiently for horsemen. I was really fascinated with it — the paddock, the barns, the track kitchen… it was built with horsemen in mind. Even as kid I was amazed at that part of it and it had such a great racing program. They drew horsemen from all over Ontario, Michigan, Ohio and Illinois. There was a cross section of horses and horsemen, and when you factored in that they had Joe DeFrank putting the races together it all added up to a great racing program. It was quite a circuit for many, many years.” DeFrank was racing secretary at Windsor later moving to the Meadowlands.

Brian Tropea, general manager of the Ontario Harness Horsemen’s Association, recalls “There were a ton of respected horse people that raced there with big stables, It was second tier to the Ontario Jockey Club circuit at the time — a very clear second — and they raced for good money. I enjoyed Windsor and I enjoyed the climate. I think the thing that I enjoyed most was the international aspect. We stabled in Windsor and raced in Ohio and Michigan, and the Ohio and Michigan people came to Windsor. It was kind of open competition, bring on all comers and let’s see who has the best horse, whereas a lot of racetracks have the same eight or nine that lined up on the gate every week. It was a very prestigious place to be.”

The most-prominent racing venue after the Greenwood/Mohawk circuit, Windsor raced from October through to April during its first twenty nine years of operation. The turnover on a typical Sunday in the 1980s would easily surpass $1 million. From its thirty year anniversary in 1995 Windsor offered year round racing.

During the recession in the late 1980’s (“Black Friday” sharemarket crash 19 October 1987) Windsor fell on some hard times and in 1989 southwestern Ontario businessman/entrepreneur Tom Joy bought the track from Montreal industrialist J-Louis Levesque, one of the prominent breeder/owners in the thoroughbred game and operator of Blue Bonnets Raceway. A separate group were also attempting to buy the track from Levesque’s son, Pierre. J-Louis Levesque brought thoroughbred racing to Windsor one season but it survived for only six weeks.

A thoroughbred owner Tom Joy attempted to inject vitality, life and resources into the ailing Windsor track. As general manager he hired John Ferguson, a retired National Hockey League enforcer known for his belligerence and love of standardbred racing. He aligned himself with former Windsor mayor John Millson making him President in 1992.

Tom Joy poured millions into the raceway but the track lost popularity when Casino Windsor opened in 1994 promptly siphoning away gambling dollars. Joy’s innovative strategies such as simulcast betting which allowed the track to open every day (364 days) except Christmas Day from noon to midnight gave patrons betting action on races from ten separate tracks in an attempt to combat the casino competition.

The Ontario Lottery Corporation introduced slot machines at all participating racetracks in Ontario beginning with Windsor in January 1999. Profits from slots boosted stakes, falling Canadian dollar and dwindling economy in Windsor and Detroit eroded the racetrack’s business. Moreover, the 9-11/2001 (11 September) attacks in New York made it difficult for Americans to cross the border significantly impacting tracks such as Windsor and Fort Erie that relied on American patrons. In 2000, Windsor Raceway completed the total makeover of the clubhouse and invested in the latest in tote system betting technologies.

Pertinent facts regarding Windsor Raceway’s later years :

• Main Track: 5/8’s of a mile
• Length of Straight: 520 feet
• Width of Home straight: 80 feet
• Racing Dates: January – December
• Post Times:
  • 7:25 p.m.
  • 6:30 p.m. Sunday
• Speed Rating: 1:58.2
• Starters Behind the Gate: 9
• Hub rail: No
• Clubhouse Capacity: 1,600 spectators
• Grandstand Capacity: 4,200 spectators
• Capacity: 5,000 cars
• Number of Machines: Over 750 slot machines in $0.05 to $5.00 denominations
• Type of Games:
  • Lucky Sevens
  • Double Lucky
  • Roaring 20’s
  • Wheel of Fortune
  • Blazing 7’s
  • Game Makers
  • several progressive links

The Provincial Cup was Windsor Raceway’s annual premier race beginning as a race for aged pacers (1966 – 1981) in the evening before becoming an afternoon race for three-year-old pacers (1982 – 2005). The Cup’s initial stake of $15,000 was one of the biggest in Canada at the time and attracted world superstar NZ bred Cardigan Bay (first millionaire) who became a two time winner of the Cup (1967, 1968). Southern hemisphere bred horses had something of a mortgage on the event when contested by aged pacers – Cardigan Bay and Young Quinn won it twice together while Good Chase and James Darren won once each.

From 1982 the Cup boasted a higher stake ($200,000) when contested by sophomore pacers (3yo’s) with prominent winners including Cam Fella, On The Road Again, Falcon Seelster, Frugal Gourmet, Artsplace, Camluck, Western Hanover, Presidential Ball and Pacific Rocket, the latter two in 1993 and 1994 matching Windsor’s three year old colts and geldings record time of 1:52:3. Bob McIntosh, leading winner of Breeders Crown races and trainer of US Horse of the Year winners Artsplace 1992 and Staying Together 1993 won four Provincial Cup’s, three in a row with Bond Street, Mystery Fund and Camluck (1988 – 1990) and Artiscape.

All-time great Niatross raced at only three Canadian tracks during his three year old career – Blue Bonnets in Montreal, Greenwood Raceway in Toronto and Windsor. Legendary drivers Shelly Goudreau, Greg Wright, Ray Remmen, Pat Crowe, and Keith Waples regularly drove at Windsor along with future stars Bill Gale and John Campbell (greatest money-winning reinsman of all time). The track featured prominent trainers such as Bob McIntosh and older brother Doug, Maury MacDonald, Gerry Bookmeyer, Howard Parks, Lou Clark, Wayne Horner and brothers Rod, Dennis and Jerry Duford.

In early 2012, horsemen were stunned by the provincial government’s notice to end its slots at racetracks partnership at all of Ontario’s seventeen tracks from 31 March 2013. Shortly after, the province (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG)) removed its slot machines from the track deeming it too close to its casino operations in Windsor, also removing the slots from tracks in Fort Erie and Sarnia effective 30 April 2012. The OLG vowed to pay the tracks and their horsemen their respective 10 per cent commissions on slots revenues, amounting to between $3.5 million to $4 million apiece. The track was unable to make any arrangements with OLG or the Government of Ontario for funding the shortfall. On Friday 4 May, a few days after the conclusion of live racing at Windsor Raceway track management issued a press release announcing plans to cease operations on 31 August 2012.  Windsor track contents were sold at auction in 2013 and the facility demolished in 2015.

Woodbine –

The original Woodbine Park’s history outlined previously under Greenwood Park (Old Woodbine), was variously known as The Woodbine, Old Woodbine and Woodbine Riding and Driving Park. Named Greenwood Park in 1963 remaining as such until its closure in 1993.

Woodbine Racetrack (‘New’ Woodbine) in Rexdale, Toronto initially opened as a racetrack for thoroughbred horse racing in 1956 with a one-mile oval dirt track, as well as a seven-eighths turf course. It was extensively remodelled in 1993 and from 1994 featured three racecourses. Owned by Woodbine Entertainment Group, the racetrack manages and hosts Canada’s most famous race The Queen’s Plate (Kings Plate 1901 – 1952) which commenced in 1860. Raced over 1¼ miles for three year old thoroughbreds, it has been run continuously at Woodbine since 1956.

The current Woodbine Track carries the name originally used by the Old Woodbine Racecourse located at the south end of Woodbine Avenue in east Toronto. The current Woodbine Track is located nowhere near it in Rexdale, a Toronto neighbourhood located north-west of the CBD in the former city of Etobicoke. Rexdale was originally a post-World War II residential development within Etobicoke.

The background behind the development of the ‘New’ Woodbine is outlined below. The old Woodbine was operated by the Ontario Jockey Club (OJC) holding the prestigious Kings/Queens Plate but competing with several other Ontario racetracks it was in need of modernisation.

Under the leadership of Canadian industrialist and horse breeder Edward Plunket Taylor, the OJC began a programme of racetrack acquisitions not dissimilar to Taylor’s earlier acquisitions and consolidations in the Canadian brewing industry. The aim was to make the OJC the biggest and most profitable operator in Ontario horse racing. In 1952 the OJC purchased and closed both Thorncliffe Park and Hamilton Racetrack while also purchasing and retaining Fort Erie Racetrack for CA$780,000. Immediately renovations commenced at Fort Erie and Old Woodbine financed by a public stock offering of CA$2 million.

In 1953 they purchased, closed and redeveloped Stamford Park in Belleville. In 1955 Edward Taylor personally purchased the Orpen owned Dufferin Park and Long Branch Racetracks for CA$4 million. Closed and redeveloped the Orpen race charters were transferred to the OJC which continued the Canadian International and Cup and Saucer stakes races that had been held at the Orpen tracks. The racing charters acquired by the OJC enabled it to run 196 days of racing, more than double its allocated total days of racing of 84 in 1952.

These racetrack acquisitions and closures by the OJC were designed to support a new “super track” the location of which the OJC identified in 1952 at Highway 27 east of Toronto airport where they purchased over 400 acres (160 ha) of land.  The architect chosen was Earle C. Morgan even though he had not previously designed a racetrack. Two years were spent developing the track design in conjunction with Arthur Froelich who had designed Hollywood Park and Garden State Park Racetracks in the United States. Designed to accommodate 40,000 spectators with ample parking, three race courses and two training tracks, it had stables for one thousand horses and rooms for seven hundred employees. The grandstand included several restaurants and cafeterias with as much viewing as possible close to the winning post. The super track’s construction commenced in 1955.

New Woodbine 1950’s

Opening on Monday 12 June 1956, the track was initially known as New Woodbine Racetrack (the “new” was dropped in 1963) constructed at a cost of CA$13 million. It was devoted exclusively to the thoroughbred code until 1994 (see later re Standardbreds use of Woodbine).

Note – the old track became a combined dual thoroughbred and standardbred code track known as Old Woodbine or for majority of its time as Greenwood Raceway (standardbreds) and Greenwood Race Track (thoroughbreds). The two thoroughbred and two standardbred meets conducted at Greenwood were transferred to the new Woodbine in 1994.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh attended the 100th running of the Queen’s Plate on June 30, 1959 and fifty one years later on 4 July 2010 Queen Elizabeth II attended the 151st running of The Queen’s Plate Stakes.

Woodbine track was the venue for opening ceremony of the 1976 Summer Paralympics with some of the sporting events being held there. Home to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, prestigious world famous races such as the Arlington Million in 1988 and Breeders’ Cup in 1996.

Two of the three gems in Canada’s Triple Crown are held at Woodbine – Queen’s Plate and Breeders’ Stakes, with the second stakes race the Prince of Wales Stakes run at Fort Erie Race Track. Other famous races held at Woodbine include the ATTO Mile and the Canadian International. The largest recoded attendance at a Woodbine thoroughbred meeting is 42,243.

The Woodbine race course consists of three separate tracks :

• EP Taylor (Edward Plunket Taylor) outermost turf course for thoroughbreds, completed in 1994, is 1.5 miles (2.4 kms) long with a chute allowing races of 1.125 miles (1.811 km) to be run around one turn. It is irregularly shaped, the clubhouse turn departing from the traditional North American oval and the back straight is from 2.5 feet (76 cm) to 3 feet (91 cm) higher than the home straight. The turf course and the main dirt course at Belmont Park on New York’s Long Island are the only mile and a half tracks in North American thoroughbred racing. Racing is conducted in a clockwise (right handed) direction
• inside the outer turf course is the 1 mile (1.6 kms) synthetic course for thoroughbreds. Initially a dirt surface, it was a Polytrack from 31 August 2006 through 2015 and since 9 April 2016 the surface has been made from a composite product called Tapeta. There are two chutes, one at seven furlongs, the other at 1¼miles
• innermost oval was originally 7/8-mile until the E. P. Taylor turf course opened in 1994. Converted to a crushed limestone dirt course initially, upgraded to one utilising crushed lava rock in 1999 and used for harness racing until April 2018. Then converted back to a second turf course used from 28 June 2019 for the thoroughbred season

The back straight and far turn of the current EP Taylor turf course originally formed part of a long turf chute that crossed over the dirt course to the inner turf oval at the top of the straight. Used for several major races including Secretariat‘s final race in the 1973 Canadian International, until the entire EP Taylor course was completed in 1994.

Woodbine’s Casino opens 24 hours daily providing over 100 gaming tables including blackjack, roulette and baccarat, 3,500+ slot machines, 220+ electronic table games and 100+ dealer assisted stadium gaming.

Woodbine harness racing –

While the Woodbine track opened for thoroughbred racing on 12 June 1956, it was not until a seven eighths mile crushed limestone track opened for harness racing on 1 January 1994 that Woodbine’s affair with standardbreds commenced. This continued until Woodbine held its final standardbred meeting on 7 April 2018, thereafter reverting back to a thoroughbred track only with the 7/8 standardbred track converted into a second turf course. Standardbred racing moved out to (Woodbine) Mohawk in Milton seventy kms west of Toronto.

The Woodbine harness track was a seven furlongs oval with a home straight width of 85 feet and length of 976 feet (325 1/3 yds or three furlongs). General admission and parking was free with the largest attendance at a harness meeting totalling 7,266 patrons. Hosted the CA$1,500,000 North America Cup for three year old pacing colts and geldings from 1994 to 2006 prior to this race and many others moving to Woodbine’s sister track Mohawk Park.

Woodbine was also a regular host for the Breeders Crown, an annual series of harness races in the United States and Canada covering each of the sport’s twelve traditional categories of age, gait and gender (two year old/three year old pacing colts/geldings, fillies; trotting colts/geldings, fillies and older horses – pacing entires/geldings, mares; trotting entires/geldings, mares). Breeders Crown at Woodbine :

• 1994 – all two year olds (4)
• 1995 – all three year olds (4)
• 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009 – all two and three year olds (8)

Since the change to a one night Breeders Crown format in 2010, Woodbine hosted all Breeders Crown races on three occasions – 2011, 2012 and 2015.

Woodbine Track Records –

Toronto CBDs near one hundred and fifty year harness racing presence concluded with the meeting on Monday 9 April 2018 at Woodbine Racetrack. The end of twenty four years of harness spectacle at this venue with the $26,520 Preferred Trot headlining a ten race programme. Previously at Saturday’s 7 April meeting, driver Roger Mayotte who had won the first standardbred race at Woodbine Racetrack on 1 January 1994 with four year old pacer Boastful, won his final drive at the Toronto track. Driver Randy Waples and trainer Kevin McMaster were respectively all time leaders for wins at Woodbine.

In June 2017, Woodbine Entertainment announced a $10 million capital investment in Mohawk Racetrack, about 70 km west of Toronto in Milton with the aim of making Mohawk into the No. 1 harness racing track in North America with year round harness racing (COVID 19 has interrupted that aim). Among many upgrades made, Mohawk grandstand and paddock were winterised and improvements made to the dining room and VIP suites. Rebranding at Mohawk included a new red logo with the harness track renamed Woodbine at Mohawk Park.

Woodbine at Mohawk Park have been working with the town of Milton on plans to intensify the 440-acre site and develop the lands around it. Most harness racing stables are nearby Woodbine at Mohawk Park making the move to the Milton area keenly supported by horsemen. The overall investment is designed to assist in sustaining harness racing in the years ahead.

Next Article : Current Ontario tracks – series A

Peter Craig

8 June 2022

Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com

Driving The Future Of Harness Racing