Harness racing returning to Century Mile

For the first time in almost a year, harness racing returns to Nisku’s Century Mile on Friday. “It’s been a long time; we’re excited about coming back,” said Fred Gillis executive-director of the Alberta Standardbred Horsemen’s Association.

Covid was the reason for the long lapse. “Because of the pandemic we stopped racing on Dec. 12, 2020 at Century Mile and didn’t get going again until May 18 this year in Calgary at Century Downs. As a result we were behind the 8-ball right from the start of 2021. We were scheduled to race 93 dates this year but when we’re done at the end of the year we’ll only have raced 59 dates.”

Gillis said as a result of the shutdown a lot of owners, trainers and breeders sold some or all of their horses. “Our horse population is down considerably,” he said. “With no racing for five months Covid made it very difficult to hang onto their horses. Especially the cheaper ones. We probably lost between 50 and 80 horses and I’m actually surprised that we kept as many horses as we did. Hopefully we have turned the corner. Some trainers are a little thin but the horses haven’t stopped eating – they still look good.”

But Gillis remains hopeful. “It’s certainly not all doom and gloom. In fact, I’m very optimistic. When harness racing starts up again on Friday there will be a 10 per cent purse increase. And those purses will go up another 10 per cent on the first of January. We will race for more money overall next year. In 2019 – the last time we raced for a full year our total purses were $10 million. In 2022 we are projecting total purses of $12.5 million. Except this year – again because of Covid – the handle had gone up every year since we started racing at Century Downs.”

“We hit $200,000 quite regularly in 2020 but we only did that a few times this year,” said Gillies, adding that the standardbred industry in Alberta didn’t have a single positive test for Covid. For the most part, except for a Christmas break, harness racing will take place every Friday at 6:15 p.m. and Saturdays at 1:15 p.m.