Game Changer: Inner turf course opens at Woodbine Racetrack

In 1973 the legendary Secretariat ended his incredible racing career with a dominating win in the Canadian International over Woodbine racetrack’s old Marshall Turf Course.

The great Triple Crown winner won by nine lengths on a dark and rainy afternoon, streaking to victory on the inner grass course while fans raced across the dirt track to see him up close.

A lot changed at Woodbine in the more than 40 years since then including that turf course being turned into a standardbred track in 1994. For 25 years, the inner track at Woodbine played host to some of the biggest names in harness racing.

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This year, with the move of standardbred racing to its permanent home at Woodbine Mohawk Park, Woodbine unveiled a pristine, new inner turf course that received rave reviews from horsepeople and added plenty more exciting grass races for fans to enjoy.

“It’s an excellent course,” said trainer Kevin Attard, whose gelding Bold Rally won the first race run on the course on June 28. “It is a fair course with great drainage and it is very safe.”

Bold Rally Jockey Eurico Da Silva on Woodbine’s new inner turf course. Michael Burns photo

The new course, which was referred to as a “beautiful carpet” by leading jockey Eurico Rosa da Silva, is made up of mostly of Kentucky Bluegrass, a perennial cold weather, low-growing grass best suited for Ontario’s climate.

The inner turf’s vertical drainage system provides very quick drainage when it rains and that ultimately keeps more races on the turf when weather conditions are not ideal.

“This is a game-changer for Woodbine,” said Jim Lawson, CEO of Woodbine Entertainment. “For both the racing enthusiast and the weekend goer, it is going to be exciting to see horses race on two different grass courses.”

Turf racing has grown in popularity in North America because it tends to attract large fields, needed to boost wagering. As horse supply continues to be problematic for Ontario racing — in fact, at tracks across North America — Woodbine is now able to have at least half of its daily races run on either the unique E.P. Taylor turf course (on the outside of the main track) or the new course.

“As a business, we are trying to increase wagering and other forms of revenue so that we can increase purses, making it interesting for horses to be brought to run in Toronto, as well as encouraging people to continue to own and breed in Ontario,” said Lawson.

The seven-furlong course allows for a variety of new distances for grass horses including five-furlong dashes that, in the early weeks of the course, resulted in many close finishes.

“They have done a great job with the course,” said Attard. “The horses don’t even dig into the surface and they have been coming out of their races in great shape.”

The inner turf course, main Tapeta all-weather surface and outer E.P. Taylor turf course certainly make Woodbine one of the most unique and exciting racetracks on the continent.