Page 3 - February 2007 The Game

Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper The Game, February 2007 3
New Racing Complex For Alberta
Woodbine Backstretch Opens for Training
The backstretch at Woodbine officially opened for the 2007 thoroughbred season on February 1 when horsepeople were able to begin setting up their allocated stalls and ship in their horses.
Stalls were assigned on January 22 after a review of an increased amount of stall applications which were submitted by the January 15 deadline.
The sandring was the first to open for training on February 4 with the main Polytrack officially opening for training on February 11. The dirt training track will be open once the horse population has increased, a specific date
has not been set.
During the past few weeks new
laundry and washrooms facilities have been installed in the “sales barn” area at the East End of barn 18 and the West End of Barn 20.
There will be a new head outrider at Woodbine this season, Robert Love, as well as a new operator of the backstretch kitchen. (watch for more information on both in the March issue of The Game).
Live thoroughbred racing returns to Woodbine on Saturday March 31 with weekend racing, Friday to Sunday, for the month of April.
Wednesday racing begins May 2 and Thursdays are added to the schedule June 7. One of the notice- able changes to this year’s schedule is that there will be Thursday racing after holiday Monday racing in July, September and October with no Thursday race dates scheduled throughout the month of August.
The 2007 Stakes Schedule is planned to be released in February with no major changes planned. The season will wrap up on Sunday, December 9.
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Within the next 24 months, the thoroughbred scene in Alberta will change dramatically for the better with the construction of a new horse racing complex. Currently budgeted at around $160 million, the project is unique in at least one category – it is being financed completely from horse people in the province.
“A group of horsemen wanted to elevate standards of racing in this province and give people the opportunity to breed and race better horses in a safer and better environment,” says Dr. David Reid, Chairman of Horse Racing Alberta. The group is known as the United Horsemen of Alberta (UHA) and is comprised of prominent Alberta horsemen as well as smaller contributors who have decided to invest in their own future.
One of the many benefits of having experienced horse people actually paying for and designing the complex is that the quality of racing becomes priority number one. And the first element that was considered was the size and shape of the new racing strip.
“When the working committee met in 2001, we stated some criteria that we felt the new track should meet,” says Reid, “One of those was that the track be a minimum one-mile oval. It’s a pretty well established fact that you get better racing because the best horses win more frequently and that creates a better handle. It’s much safer because the bullrings, called that for a reason, always have a lot of contact with horses and riders who often have to make their moves at a very dangerous part of the track.”
The horsemen purchased a track of land in Balzac, Alberta, about two miles north of Calgary. The town was named after Honore Balzac, the famous French writer whose collection of works from the middle of the 19th century has been known as the Human Comedy. Mind
you, there is nothing comedic about the considerable investment made on this property by the humans in Alberta.
“Because of the upgrading of that land and because they’ve attracted a shopping centre to the property, this has caused the land to increase in value,” reports Reid. “Everything they’ve done in that area has made it a very desirable piece of real estate. The horsemen are so committed to this project that they’re turning over the profit from the sale of these lands to the project.”
The new complex (which is still unnamed) will be the first multi-breed facility west of Woodbine. An inside oval of 7 furlongs will be used for standardbred racing while the thoroughbreds will enjoy Western Canada’s first one mile track. The grandstand will be designed for a variety of entertainment purposes; it will house the racing centre which will include between 500 and 700 slot machines.
“The budget includes a very large mall that we believe will attract 11 million visitors a year,” says Reid. “It will be themed on the history of Alberta and is adjacent to probably the busiest transport corridor in Alberta, so we have this very special type of high-end mall that will encourage people to stay there a long time. We hope to introduce them to horseracing.”
One of the many appealing aspects for the horse racing industry in Alberta is having a satellite college at the complex affiliated with Olds College, which is a well known accredited “agricultural, horticultural,
land and environmental management learning organization.” Reid is quite enthusiastic about the potential of this.
“Going into the future, the scarcest resource will be people,” he says. “So we run a groom school and an exercise riding program. We will
have the ability to partnership with the veterinary college in Calgary. It will be the centre of equine activity and assist us in developing our own workforce.”
Dr. Reid has owned and raced thoroughbreds for 15 years, so he is in a strong position to assess and help direct this massive undertaking.
“In 2005, the economic activity generated by racing and breeding was $385 million,” he points out,” That’s money generated by tracks and farms and associated activity.”
For this year, Stampede Park will continue to conduct its thoroughbred racing. Races will be held until June at which point that track will hold its annual Stampede and that will pretty well do it as far as Stampede Park’s involvement.
“That will be the last involvement as an ‘A’ or primary racetrack in Alberta,” says Reid, “though we will work with that track in terms of training.”
Crews have completed most of the grading and stripping upon which the buildings and racetrack will be built and the investors are hoping to conduct racing in Balzac in 2008.
The glimmer of a very bright racing future is inspiring the horse people of Alberta though, right now, the new track has no name.
Perhaps...
The Track at Balzac?
Well, do you have a better idea?
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