Cloverdale Raceway opens

When I was growing up in Cloverdale the only horse racing we had was during the rodeo on the long weekend in May and that was chuckwagon racing. The grandstand was a bit different back then. There were outside bleachers with a roof cover and more bleachers on the infield. The curling rink was attached to the bleachers on the east side, the Greenaway Park side.

In the early 1970's during Cloverdale's fall fair in late September a group of different racehorses showed up to race on the chuckwagon track during the weekend. They were Standardbreds pulling racing sulkies, guided by a driver, generally a man, sitting on the sulky.

In late 1975 or early 1976 Standardbred racing officially began in Cloverdale including betting windows and placing wagers. The grandstand was transformed into a closed in building. The curling rink was relocated to where it currently is off 176th Street on the west side of the fairgrounds. Barns to stable the horses were built at the north end of the fairgrounds and the racetrack was upgraded to a limestone track.

The racetrack was very popular during the first few years with racing 5 days or nights a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The popularity of racing fed off Hastings Park's Thoroughbred racing during the spring and summer months. When the season ended mid-October the gamblers had nothing until Cloverdale Raceway opened in the mid-70's and offered Standardbred racing from mid-October to mid-April. So the racing piggybacked off each other. One breed of racing ending as the other racing breed began. Of course back then there was no other types of gambling in the Lower Mainland and not a whole lot of entertainment options out there either other than movies, sporting events, and music concerts. Cablevision brought us about 12 channels on the TV.

Even though it was in competition with the Thoroughbred racing at Hastings Park, Cloverdale Raceway still held a fall meet of racing during the fall fair in September for the weekend. Eventually they expanded their fall meet to two weekends.

In the 1970's and 1980's it was not uncommon to see cars lined up all the way down 176th Street from Cloverdale to well past the Fraser Highway on race nights as cars came in to town to watch the racing. The races ended just after 10pm and it was a steady flow of traffic leaving Cloverdale too. Bumper to bumper traffic back then.

Cloverdale Raceway charged patrons a parking fee to park in the fairgrounds and also charged admission to the racetrack grandstand of $2/person.