During the 1950s, the fresh new OJC, within the leadership of Canadian industrialist and you may pony breeder E
They decrease the new within the 1963
Woodbine Racetrack was a race-track getting Thoroughbred horse race during the the fresh new Etobicoke part of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Woodbine Recreation Classification, Woodbine Racetrack protects and you will machines Canada’s most well-known battle, the newest King’s Plate. The brand new track try launched during the 1956 that have a single-kilometer egg-shaped mud track, plus an excellent 7-eights grass way. [ one ] This has been widely refurbished because 1993, and because 1994 has already established about three racecourses. [ 2 ]
Background
The current Woodbine deal the name to start with used by a slot machine casino good racetrack and therefore operated inside the southern area of Toronto, from the King Road East and Kingston Highway, from 1874 owing to 1993. (While the Old Woodbine Race-course is at the new southern end of Woodbine Opportunity, the current Woodbine was no place near it.) Within the 1951, it had been operated by Ontario Jockey Club (OJC) and you may stored the brand new esteemed King’s Plate, nevertheless competed with lots of other racetracks inside the Ontario and you may are looking for adaptation. [ 3 ]
P. Taylor, began an application away from racetrack acquisitions geared towards to be the greatest and most effective agent for the Ontario horse racing, like Taylor’s before purchases and you may consolidations in the Canadian brewing globe. During the 1952, the newest OJC ordered and you may finalized the bucks-shedding Thorncliffe Playground, [ four ] bought and closed the new Hamilton Racetrack, and you can ordered the brand new Fort Erie Racetrack getting California$780,000 . [ four ] Renovations began instantly at the Fort Erie as well as Woodbine, financed of the a community giving away from inventory getting California$2 million . [ 3 ]
During the 1953, the brand new OJC bought Stamford Playground inside the Stamford township (now part of Niagara Falls, Ontario). It absolutely was closed and soon after redeveloped on the a domestic subdivision. For the 1955, Taylor themselves bought the fresh new contending Orpen-had Dufferin Playground Racetrack and you may Long Branch Racetracks to possess California$4 million ($44.6 million in the 2023 dollars) [ 5 ] . [ 6 ] The fresh new Orpen music had been closed and you can redeveloped, and Orpen race charters gone to live in the fresh new OJC. The newest OJC continued the brand new Canadian Globally and Cup-and-saucer stakes events that were kept within Orpen tunes. [ eight ] The new race charters gotten from the most other songs let the fresh OJC to operate 196 times of racing, more twice their desired overall off 84 days inside the 1952. [ twenty three ]
Most of the operate within racetrack acquisitions and you may closures had been designed to support another type of „supertrack“. Within the 1952, the fresh new OJC recognized the latest location of the racetrack from the Road twenty seven eastern of one’s Toronto airport and you can purchased over 400 miles (160 ha). The latest designer chose try Earle C. Morgan. Even when Morgan hadn’t tailored a great racetrack, he spent the second 24 months developing the form in conjunction which have Arthur Froelich, who’d tailored Movie industry Park Racetrack and Lawn State Park Racetrack in the us. [ 8 ] The fresh new song was created to hold 40,000 visitors, have big parking, about three battle programmes as well as 2 training tunes. It had stable area for one,000 ponies and you can rooms getting 700 team. The brand new grandstand, made to rating as many individuals as near for the finish range you could, incorporated numerous dining and cafeterias. [ 9 ] Build for the the fresh supertrack began for the 1955.
The latest racetrack opened towards Summer a dozen, 1956, based at a price off Ca$thirteen billion ($143 billion within the 2023 bucks). [ 5 ] [ ten ] It was first known as the The fresh Woodbine Racetrack. The old song is transformed into a blended thoroughbred and standardbred track known afterwards since Old Woodbine otherwise, for most of the rest of the history, while the Greenwood Raceway (throughout standardbred fits) and you may Greenwood Race-track (through the thoroughbred fits). The 2 thoroughbred and two standardbred meets presented within Greenwood was moved to the fresh new Woodbine for the 1994, which was until then exclusively predicated on thoroughbred rushing. For the Summer 30, 1959, King Age II while the Duke regarding Edinburgh attended the brand new 100th powering of one’s Queen’s Plate, [ eleven ] and you may Queen E II once more into the , went to the latest 151st running of the Queen’s Dish Stakes and you can shown trophies.