When the Calgary Stampeders score a touchdown, the white gelding better known as “Quick Six” goes for a celebratory run down the sidelines. But that won’t be the case this Grey Cup Sunday.
For the second year in a row, Quick Six won’t be allowed on the sidelines for the biggest Canadian Football League (CFL) game of the year.
“It’s disappointing,” said Karen Drake, former rider of Quick Six. Her daughter Chelsea has now taken the reigns for the Stampeders touchdown horse. “We have been at the Grey Cup games before and just the last two years now we’ve been declined to be at the games.”
READ MORE: Calgary Stampeders’ Quick Six not allowed on BMO Field during Grey Cup game in Toronto
In 2016, the CFL told the team the mascot was not welcome for that year’s Grey Cup at Toronto’s BMO Field because there wasn’t enough room.
This year the league said while team mascots will be allowed, live animals are not because of limited space and safety.
LISTEN: News Talk 770’s Rob Breakenridge speaks with former Quick Six rider Karen Drake
Even if the Stampeders were allowed to have an equine presence on the sidelines, the real Quick Six wouldn’t have been able to make the journey and instead would have been replaced by a stand-in.
“That’s a long drive,” Drake said, noting that she would have been in contact with the horse community near Ottawa to find someone who’d be willing to lend a horse. “It’s fairly easy to find, but then it gets a little tougher because you have to narrow it down to a grey horse or a white horse and then a horse that’ll put up with the crowd and the noise.”
“I was looking forward to doing it this week, but it’s not going to happen.”
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