Woodbine Entertainment is preparing for the upcoming live racing season and the schedule is beginning to take shape. The CA$1-million Queen’s Plate has been confirmed to take place on September 12 at Woodbine Racetrack and enthusiasts are already preparing for it. Canada’s Triple Crown would commence then, followed by two more milestone racing events in the following months.
Canadian horse people are preparing for the riveting live season ahead of them and training their racehorses is already in progress. The season is about to commence on June 5 at Woodbine Mohawk Park and on June 6 at Woodbine Racetrack. Once the starting dates were known, it was time for Woodbine Entertainment to work on the remaining live dates and Canada’s Triple Crown in particular.
September 12
Its first leg is also known as North America’s longest continuously-run stakes horse racing tournament. Queen’s Plate comes with stakes of CA$1 million and all eyes are set on it, as it is a great opportunity for experience racehorses to make it to the first position on the official leaderboard. Woodbine Entertainment Chief Executive Officer Jim Lawson made an official announcement at the beginning of this week.
He pointed out that September 12 is the most appropriate time for the first leg of the Triple Crown to be greenlighted. This would give horse people enough time for preparation. The CA$125,000 Plate Trial and CA$500,000 Woodbine Oaks are the two preparation races for the racehorses willing to make it to the Queen’s Plate in September. Both of them would take place on August 15.
It should be taken into account that the Woodbine Oaks is also the start of the Canadian Triple Tiara trio of racing events welcoming three-year-old fillies. Mr. Lawson confirmed that the preparation of the schedule took some serious planning, striving to sprinkle the events across the upcoming months and give all horses the time to train.
September 19
September 19 is about to see the second leg of Canada’s Triple Crown – the Woodbine Mile event. It comes with a CA$1-million prize for the fastest racehorse in the area. This is a Grade 1 turf race running a week after the first leg of the Triple Crown, an unprecedented situation in itself. The Chief Executive Officer of Woodbine Entertainment pointed out that the two major events are not supposed to occupy the same day.
These new dates are a slight delay in the originally planned races for the summer months. The unprecedented situation mandated a postponing and complete reconstruction of the 2020 live schedule for all horse racetracks of Ontario and Canada in general. It could be recalled that last month, Ontario’s government announced its plan for reopening local businesses.
Horse racing was part of the first phase. Horse racetracks have the opportunity to relaunch regular races without spectators as soon as they can, which for many of them would mean at the beginning of next month. Mr. Lawson hopes that the larger racing events in September would be able to welcome spectators back on the premises of the racecourse, so they can feel the thrill of live racing.
