The first interesting piece of news at the end of July is that General Manager Chuck Keeling announced his resignation effective October 1, 2010. For those who are not familiar with the history of Fraser Downs, Keeling's grandfather Jim Keeling Sr was the one who founded the racetrack at Cloverdale in 1976 - back in the days when it was known as Cloverdale Raceway. In the early 90's his son and Chuck's father, Jim Keeling Jr, took over the management duties. In 1996 he died rather tragically in a boating accident and his son Chuck took over running the racetrack. Huge shoes to fit for a young man in his mid-20's. Chuck has not announced what his new venture is other than to say it is nothing related to horse racing or gaming.
On Friday, August 13 2010, a newsletter was issued on the BC Harness Racing website. You can read it here.
Bottom line is the number of racing days at Fraser Downs has been cut from 37 days to 23 days. Racing was supposed to resume on October 1 but has now been postponed to October 15. All race days for 2011 have been cancelled, but there might still be racing next year, dates to be determined.
This is not good news for the horse owners and trainers and other persons who work in the backstretch of Fraser Downs. That is practically no income at all.
Awhile ago I posted about Fraser Downs moving into the 2000's. I was at the city hall meeting where the racetrack staff and backstretch people were all for a casino opening in Fraser Downs with slot machines. I went to the meeting out of curiosity. Bottom line is it didn't matter to me one way or the other. I've been to Reno and Las Vegas several times over the years. I did not oppose a casino opening at the racetrack.
The incredible thing was the horsepeople's attitude to this. Slot machines were good. It would save their racing industry. They'd be able to share in the slots revenue and the purses. Some sort of racetrack propaganda they were all blindly believing as several horsemen and women took the microphone to address the council.
I shook my head. I sympathized with them and for their jobs and way of life but they weren't seeing the bigger picture. These are not businessmen used to the corporate world. Well there might be a couple of semi-retired corporate types who got into horse racing as hobbyists, but we're not talking the majority of the backstretch folk, many of whom have not worked any other jobs. Corporate business people are used to meetings, contracts, budgets, crunching numbers, speaking with advisors, etc. Not so on the racetrack where gossip runs rampant and the scuttlebut clearly was that the slots would be a good thing.
I doubted it. I figured the casino would bring in a new clientele who lived closer to Fraser Downs than other casinos and would come to Cloverdale instead of driving into Newton, Coquitlam, Richmond, etc. The corporate busines people running Fraser Downs would be checking their spreadsheets and seeing that slots revenue was good and the wagering on the horse races not so good because they are two different business run under Fraser Downs. I knew the slots revenue would carry the horse racing along for awhile but eventually someone crunching numbers would see that the horse racing venture just wasn't that profitable.
I think this is just the first step.
Prepare for a mass exodus of horsemen to Ontario.
Showing posts with label Cloverdale Raceway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cloverdale Raceway. Show all posts
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Cloverdale Raceway becomes Fraser Downs
I decided its about time to continue where I left off on the Cloverdale Raceway and the grandstand in the 80's.
As Cloverdale Raceway entered the 1990's, attendance was diminishing and racing was down to 3 times a week - Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday - between October and April. On statutory holidays there would be afternoon racing if the holiday fell on a week day. There were also a couple of extra nights racing starting in September and occasionally into late April or early May. During the summer months the Standardbred horses raced at Sandown Raceway, near the ferry terminal at Sidney on Vancouver Island, about a half hour drive from Victoria.
Patrons were no longer flocking to Cloverdale on racenights they way they had been in the early 80's. People were finding other forms of entertainment with slot machines and tables opening around the Lower Mainland. Cloverdale Raceway stopped charging for parking in the fairgrounds parking lot and stopped charging admission into the grandstand in an effort to boost attendance by making it more consumer friendly and accessible. The grandstand underwent more renovations and The Clubhouse became a well known dining experience, whether or not a patron was interested in horse racing, with an outstanding buffet.
In 1996 the name changed from Cloverdale Raceway to Fraser Downs. Racing nights had their ups and downs, anywhere from two nights to four nights a week. The racetrack had trouble keeping quality horses, trainers, and drivers due to low purses. Anyone with talent and a good stable of horses headed to other Canadian racetracks with higher purses where they had a better chance of earning a decent living.
Throughout the late nineties the racetrack management attempted to get interest to install slot machines in the grandstand, believing this would be the only solution to saving the racetrack, but mostly their efforts fell on deaf ears. Horse owners and their stables headed east, purses remained low in Cloverdale, and the remaining horse people stuck it out hoping things would get better.
As Cloverdale Raceway entered the 1990's, attendance was diminishing and racing was down to 3 times a week - Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday - between October and April. On statutory holidays there would be afternoon racing if the holiday fell on a week day. There were also a couple of extra nights racing starting in September and occasionally into late April or early May. During the summer months the Standardbred horses raced at Sandown Raceway, near the ferry terminal at Sidney on Vancouver Island, about a half hour drive from Victoria.
Patrons were no longer flocking to Cloverdale on racenights they way they had been in the early 80's. People were finding other forms of entertainment with slot machines and tables opening around the Lower Mainland. Cloverdale Raceway stopped charging for parking in the fairgrounds parking lot and stopped charging admission into the grandstand in an effort to boost attendance by making it more consumer friendly and accessible. The grandstand underwent more renovations and The Clubhouse became a well known dining experience, whether or not a patron was interested in horse racing, with an outstanding buffet.
In 1996 the name changed from Cloverdale Raceway to Fraser Downs. Racing nights had their ups and downs, anywhere from two nights to four nights a week. The racetrack had trouble keeping quality horses, trainers, and drivers due to low purses. Anyone with talent and a good stable of horses headed to other Canadian racetracks with higher purses where they had a better chance of earning a decent living.
Throughout the late nineties the racetrack management attempted to get interest to install slot machines in the grandstand, believing this would be the only solution to saving the racetrack, but mostly their efforts fell on deaf ears. Horse owners and their stables headed east, purses remained low in Cloverdale, and the remaining horse people stuck it out hoping things would get better.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
More about Cloverdale fairground's racetrack
When the grandstand at the Cloverdale fairgrounds transitioned into spectator seating for the Standardbred horse racing, changes came slowly. Most notably enclosing the structure, gating it in, so as to control paid admission into the grandstand. $2/person if memory serves correctly and back then racing was 5 times a week from mid-October to mid-April, during the off season for the Thoroughbred racing at Hastings Park in Vancouver.
By the mid-80's attendance was slacking off a bit. Other forms of entertainment were pulling racing aficionados away from the Cloverdale Raceway. I remember when traffic on racing nights was lined up down 176th Street to the Fraser Highway and sometimes even further north of the Fraser Highway. Bumper to bumper crawl into Cloverdale, trying to turn left onto 60th Avenue and the entrances to the fairgrounds. Back then there was no priority left hand turn lane signal.
Then in the mid-80's racing downsized to 4 times a week. I don't recall for sure, but I think it was Monday night racing that was bumped, leaving racing on Wednesday and Friday nights, and during the afternoons on Saturday and Sunday. Then the change was made from Wednesday night to Thursday night so that meant Standardbred racing was on 4 consecutive days.
Food service in the grandstand on racing nights consisted of a couple of hot dog and hamburger stands. There were a lot of wagering windows open where tellers took racer's bets.
There were a lot of horses still racing in Cloverdale even though the purses weren't all that great. There were several large horse barns in the backstretch area plus a couple of smaller horse barns closer to the grandstand on the parking lot side.
That left 6 months of the year when there was no racing at Cloverdale. During the off season Standardbreds shipping over to Sandown Park on Vancouver Island or over to one of the tracks in Alberta. There was also a couple of weekends of racing in mid-September, the fair meet, which was in conjunction with the now defunct fall fair that used to be held at the Cloverdale fairgrounds.
The Cloverdale racetrack headed into the 90's with a waning popularity.
By the mid-80's attendance was slacking off a bit. Other forms of entertainment were pulling racing aficionados away from the Cloverdale Raceway. I remember when traffic on racing nights was lined up down 176th Street to the Fraser Highway and sometimes even further north of the Fraser Highway. Bumper to bumper crawl into Cloverdale, trying to turn left onto 60th Avenue and the entrances to the fairgrounds. Back then there was no priority left hand turn lane signal.
Then in the mid-80's racing downsized to 4 times a week. I don't recall for sure, but I think it was Monday night racing that was bumped, leaving racing on Wednesday and Friday nights, and during the afternoons on Saturday and Sunday. Then the change was made from Wednesday night to Thursday night so that meant Standardbred racing was on 4 consecutive days.
Food service in the grandstand on racing nights consisted of a couple of hot dog and hamburger stands. There were a lot of wagering windows open where tellers took racer's bets.
There were a lot of horses still racing in Cloverdale even though the purses weren't all that great. There were several large horse barns in the backstretch area plus a couple of smaller horse barns closer to the grandstand on the parking lot side.
That left 6 months of the year when there was no racing at Cloverdale. During the off season Standardbreds shipping over to Sandown Park on Vancouver Island or over to one of the tracks in Alberta. There was also a couple of weekends of racing in mid-September, the fair meet, which was in conjunction with the now defunct fall fair that used to be held at the Cloverdale fairgrounds.
The Cloverdale racetrack headed into the 90's with a waning popularity.
Monday, January 11, 2010
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.
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.
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