The shrines of horse racing are in Kentucky or Belmont. The game’s blue bloods reside traditionally in Florida, Calfornia, even New Orleans.
But there’s a new go-to racing universe. Woodbine has never looked better.
“Five years ago when our horses would go south of the border we’d get no respect. Now you hear handicappers say, you’ve got to respect this horse. He’s from Woodbine,” said Mark Casse, runaway winner of his third consecutive title as Woodbine’s top trainer.
Casse should know. He is Indiana born, Kentucky raised, raced throughout the U.S. and now calls Woodbine his business office.
“Woodbine has grown and gotten so much more respect within the racing community,” said Casse, as the season winds up this weekend. “Even around Toronto a lot of people don’t realize how great the racing is here. There’s no better place in North America.”
Perhaps North America is starting to take notice.
While final figures are not yet in, when the season ends the Woodbine meet will show a handle increase of 6%, Jamie Martin, senior vice-president for Woodbine Entertainment Group, said this week. The average handle on races at Woodbine is about $2.5 million a day. Of that, about 33% is from the Toronto area.
“It is unique because with the economy all the American tracks are off double digits,” Martin said. “We’re feeling pretty good about things. It has been a very good season.”
In the GTA, about $850 million will be bet on horse racing this year.
“We started slowly but had a tremendous Queen’s Plate. Maybe it was because it was the 150th and,” Martin said, “I know a lot of our betting isn’t on track anymore, but it just got a lot more attention and we had a great crowd here. As good as we’d had in 15 years.”
There are a number of reasons for Woodbine’s elevated fortunes. Slot machines. They add between 35% to 40% to purses, giving Woodbine one of the most attractive purse structures in North America.
Even Churchill Downs pales in comparison.
“We pay out more purse money than any other track ... about $500,000 a day,” Martin said. Churchill Downs pays out about $200,000.
“We’re on par with the top meets in the U.S. like Saratoga, Delmar,” Martin said.
That money, along with the recent addition of its synthetic track, has attracted some of the best trainers, horses and jockeys from the U.S.
They, in turn, attract American bettors who are now also able to watch Woodbine on the Television Games Network.
“Most of that 6% increase (in handle) is from the U.S.,” Martin said. “People in the U.S. see recognizable names and that helps our profile. We’re an exporter to the U.S. If they know the names in the program whether its a trainer or jockey it helps.”
Woodbine has grown to include 187 trainers on the backstretch with 2,200 stalls. Four jockeys, Jim McAleney, Emile Ramsammy, Patrick Husbands and Rob Landry all collected their 2,000th wins this season.
Husbands, with earnings of more than $10 million, won the jockey title and goes into the final weekend with 181 wins, 48 more than his closest competitor, Chantal Sutherland.
Casse goes into the final weekend having saddled 71 winners but it is what Woodbine offers before he even gets a horse to the starting gate that attracts him as a trainer.
“The new synthetic surface is by far the best track I’ve ever trained on. If the conventional track and the poly track are the same on a good day, on a bad weather day (poly) is superior.
“From a trainer standpoint, in eight months on a conventional track we might lose 25-30 days because of weather. We won’t miss a day here. Also we have without a doubt the best turf course in North America.”
It is showing with the end product. “Last winter we took a small string to California,” Casse recalled. “About the first four or five horses we ran I can remember them saying the Woodbine form doesn’t hold up against the tough California horses. After we won three of the first five it became: ‘Oh , these horses are from Toronto. Their form holds up.’ They changed their tune.”
A lot of things about horse racing have changed. With the Internet and 25 off-track betting sites in Toronto alone only about 20% of bets are actually laid at the track. Smaller crowds and, admits Martin: “You do lose some of the atmosphere”.
On the other hand, atmosphere doesn’t pay the bills.
