Action up at the Downs on Canada Day

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/07/2018 (2876 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Assiniboia Downs has been on a serious roll of late, as anyone who was at the facility’s Canada Day fireworks display can attest. On some evenings and weekends, it’s almost like you’ve been transported back in time to when horse racing was the only gambling game in town.

“That was the largest crowd we’ve had for live racing since the early ’80s,” Assiniboia Downs CEO Darren Dunn said of the July 1 attendance. “I can confidently say it was well above 10,000 people. It was a perfect storm. There were no fireworks at Assiniboine Park, we had a top-shelf live race card with big fields of horses, and the inclement weather probably brought some people back from the lake early.

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciated the patience of our customers that day. An unusually large crowd arrived to ‘Do the Downs’ just for the fireworks display. There were long lineups for betting and for the concessions, but everyone seemed to be in great spirits.”

The Downs offered a unique version of fireworks, to the point where they became — like horse racing — a participatory sport. Anyone who has ever stood on a bench and cheered their horse home in the stretch drive understands what that means. The proximity of the fireworks to the seating made people feel like they were part of the show.

A similar fireworks extravaganza will occur again at the Downs on Sunday, Aug. 5, the evening before the 70th running of the $75,000 Manitoba Derby, following the UNREAL nine-tribute-band show that is being held at the Downs.

People have shown they really enjoy being part of the experience of live racing. They especially like watching horses breaking from the starting gate for the seven- and 7½-furlong races, lining up along the fence to get photos of the horses as they explode from the gate. Others just love the chance to get out and enjoy the warm summer evenings Manitoba offers, have a beverage if they’re so inclined, or simply take in the beauty of the thoroughbreds as they prance around the paddock, not to mention cheering for their horse at a full-out run in stretch drive.

“People continue to enjoy the horses,” Dunn said. “And they clearly appreciated the value of free parking and admission, which is rare for a sporting even these days. There’s a cool, hip vibe out here and it’s a university-like crowd.”

The Downs understandably got off to a bit of slow start this year, as the Winnipeg Jets went on a deep and courageous run towards the Stanley Cup, but in June things really took off.

“We’ve been on a roll ever since,” Dunn said. “On-track wagering per race has increased year over year for three years in row, and is currently on track to increase again in 2018. That’s literally unheard of in this sport, especially in Canada.

“Our team continues to do a remarkable job of selling our racing signal to the rest of the world, and that’s helped increase our overall handle. Local bettors can now wager in any fashion that responsibly suits them, and it won’t affect the odds. That’s something they couldn’t do in the past.”

On the evening before Canada Day, fans were treated to some excellent racing action that included a bit of a throwback all the way back to the 1960s, when Murray Duncan-trained horses finished 1-2 in the 59th running of the R.J. Speers Stakes.

Duncan, who is from Carberry, first trained horses at the Downs in the 1960s, and conditioned a horse named Precambrian to win seven of eight starts during the 42-day Downs meeting in 1961, although he was disqualified from one of those wins. Precambrian just missed winning eight in a row that year, finishing second by a head in his final start of that long-ago season.

Like the Downs, Duncan has been on a serious roll of late, continuing with his pattern of claiming horses at Oaklawn Park and winning stakes with them at Assiniboia Downs. So far this year, Duncan has compiled a record of 8-4-3 from 19 starts. He’s winning races at a 42 per cent clip and has won three stakes, including the Miss Missile Overnight Stakes with Lady Warrior, and both the Free Press Stakes and the R. J. Speers with the same horse, whose name perfectly sums up many things at the Downs this year.

Plentiful.