The Assiniboia Downs is marking its 65th anniversary.
The thoroughbred horse racing track officially opened on June 10, 1958, although the racing season started one year prior.
“It’s a big deal to our community, it certainly shows the history and the prestige,” Assiniboia Downs CEO Darren Dunn said.
“When you think of the history of horse racing, over 100 years in this province, the majority of it at this iconic facility … it’s heartwarming but it’s also important to the community. It’s a gathering place, it’s an entertainment place, it’s fun, a little gaming on the side as well. But it’s meant a lot to a lot of people in Winnipeg who have either worked here or enjoyed a family event here and raised a glass hopefully to victory on a well-selected horse.”
While the Downs is celebrating 65 years, the history of horse racing in Manitoba goes far beyond that.
“It goes back almost forever, from the mid-to-late 1800s,” Assiniboia Downs track historian Bob Gates told Global News.
“But formal horse racing, as we know it today, basically got started in 1922 by a gentleman named Robert J. Speers.”
Speers opened Manitoba’s first racetrack, River Park, in 1922.
“He was responsible for sort of reviving the horse racing at old River Park,” Gates said.
Three years later, Speers decided River Park needed updating. Gates says instead of upgrading the existing facility, he opened a brand-new racetrack in St. Boniface called Whittier Park, near Fort Gibraltar. Whittier was so successful, the following year Speers opened another racetrack on the site of what is now the Polo Park Shopping Centre.
In 1942, racing at Whittier Park was halted due to rationing and cost-saving measures amid the Second World War.
“They elected to stop the racing at Whittier Park and continue only at Polo Park because it was on the main line and just easier to get to,” Gates said.
“And racing continued on at Polo Park … they never did go back and open (Whittier Park) up again. In 1950 with the big flood, that basically sealed Whittier Park’s fate, with the grandstand so close to the river, it was just destroyed.”
Racing would continue at Polo Park until the mid-1950s. The land value in the area was skyrocketing, and Speers purchased land just west of the city before his death in 1955.
The track was then taken over by Jack Hardy, who owned National Motors at the time.
“And in 1957, there were rumours, especially out west, that racing in Manitoba was done, it was never coming back. Jack Hardy saw to it that that wasn’t the case,” Gates said.
Construction of Assiniboia Downs started in the fall of 1957 and the facility officially opened on June 10, 1958.
“It was a three-million-dollar facility and back then it was deemed to be the finest track in Western Canada,” Gates said.
For decades, fans have been coming to the Assiniboia Downs, with the facility surviving the ebbs and flows of public interest in horse racing.
In the 1960s and ’70s, horseracing was the only way of gambling in Manitoba. Gates says the ’70s proved to be the hay days for horse racing, with superstar steeds like Secretariat spiking popularity in the sport. He says Manitoba also had its own local heroes, which piqued the interest of fans.
“They had horses that got the title ‘The People’s Horse.’ There was a horse by the name Prime Time TV – he won the Manitoba Derby, he was considered to be the People’s Horse,” he said.
“There also was a horse by the name of Kalfaari. He ran the kind of races and attracted the kind of attention that drew people to him. People would come out just to watch him run. Some horses just seem to have that magical aura about them.”
In 1970, the Royal Family visited the Assiniboia Downs as part of celebrations for Manitoba’s centennial. Queen Elizabeth, Prince Phillip, Princess Anne and the future King Charles attended the 1970 Manitoba Derby.
In the late ’70s and ’80s, the Downs started hosting concerts, with performances by the likes of Alan Jackson, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, The Steve Miller Band, and a memorable show by The Eagles in 1978, that saw fans flood the racetrack.
“They ended up climbing over the security fences and total mayhem ensued,” Gates said. “Not everybody paid the $13 to get in, let’s put it that way.”
Technology with horse racing has evolved throughout the years. The Downs now uses GPS technology to track each horse and uses artificial intelligence to select horses to bet on through an app called Dark Horse.
“It takes racing into the future,” Dunn said. “Even though the core of it is still the hard-working people putting together the best effort and backing a four-legged animal that is so majestic and so proud to do what they do.”
Like many other sporting events, the Downs also had to adapt drastically during the pandemic, hosting live racing in front of an empty grandstand.
“All you could hear was the thundering hooves, no fans to bang a program on their leg or raise a glass in victory, just chilling in a lot of ways,” Dunn said.
“But we were able to survive and thrive off it, and find a new path for Assiniboia Downs.”
Today, races at the Assiniboia Downs are viewed all across North America, and even in Europe and Australia.
But Gates says behind the betting, events and trophies, remains the one thing that captivates and captures the audience the most.
“Honestly, the horses make it special. People. Love. Horses,” Gates said.
“They have to be the most gorgeous animal on the face of the earth. And their strength is unbelievable and they make you want to love them. They’re the rockstars. That’s what it’s all about.”
Gates, who’s been attending the races for decades, says his favourite time is when the races are done, the crowds are gone, and the horses are heading back to the stable.
“My favorite time of the night is after the last race is done, they turn off the lights and I’ll walk the tarmac, and I’m walking it in 2023, and I think back to the ’60s, the ’70s, the time I spent out here,” he said.
“And I know it sounds corny, but if you’re really quiet and you listen, I swear to god you can hear thundering hooves on that (empty) track. And that’s just moving.”
Comments