New Races, New Faces: How I Fell for The Fort

A rolling stone by nature, I found myself embracing a new job role in the horse racing industry this year. This new venture took me beyond Toronto’s cement jungle to the historic border oval of Fort Erie Race Track in Fort Erie, Ontario. A contract role as the Fort’s media and communications manager saw me head south on the QEW to a place surrounded by serene landscape and reminiscent of a Hallmark movie that plays on repeat as the holiday season approaches.

A journalist by trade, social media is in my wheelhouse. Yet, one must keep in mind that media management is a continuously changing role, and as technology flourishes into new dimensions, the social media landscape has also dispersed into a subset of platforms. Various platforms where different audiences devour information on the news, entertainment, sports and find a general escape from a reality that has been engulfed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social media and communications in the COVID-19 landscape

One of my responsibilities was maintaining our social media presence on various platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Photos from the backstretch, videos of horses stretching their legs across the dirt course, updates about the season, horses scratched from the racing card, jockey changes, messages of remembrance. There was a slew of messages, newsworthy and noteworthy items that were tweeted, retweeted, posted, and shared to ensure we reach the broadest audience possible. On our dark days when live racing wasn’t happening, customers reached out with a plethora of questions, wanting to know about our COVID-19 policies, when wiener dog races would return, the jackpot hi-5, and sometimes an inquiry about how to make a bet when they visit the track.

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Mama Lucy walking Madame Bovery, with Kendra Wieczorek in the saddle. (Mike Bennett/Laurie Langley-forteriehorsepeople.ca)

Social media aside, communications was a key role in my job and one aspect I greatly enjoyed. Connecting reporters with the horsepeople, coordinating with vendors for Prince of Wales, meeting racegoers that have been attending the racetrack for the last several years. Although the days passed too quickly at the Fort, some memories, including the simplest of interactions will never leave me.

One afternoon while I was greeting fans at the main entrance, a gentleman approached me.
“How are you today?” I muffled from behind my mask. “I’m stepping on sunshine!” he bellowed back from behind his mask.

A simple interaction, yet in the face of a pandemic you could tell that people were delighted to return to a cherished pastime of watching races on a beautiful summer afternoon at the border oval.

Communications is a vibe on its own and during these trying times, providing relevant and timely updates for every stakeholder within and outside the industry is essential. We started the season with no spectators, then as time progressed we opened up to a limited number of spectators, and as the season wrapped the stipulation was added that spectators must be fully vaccinated to attend racing. As the season finished, the government announced they were lifting capacity limits. While the 2021 racing season has ended, the Racebook at the track remains open for simulcast racing and operates at full capacity.

If this season had a racing name I would’ve called it ‘Dontgetoocomfortable’ closely stalked by ‘Continuous Change,’ and tracked by a fast-closing third ‘Staysafe.’

Despite the continuous changes, I worked with a great management team, many of those members who’ve called the track home for the last couple decades and know all the ins and outs of the border oval. Becky Singleton, Tanya Bailey, Jackie and Harry Eder, Walter Berg, Peter Spoar, Steve Falconer, Tom Valiquette and Drew Cady. Names brought to life from the contact us section of forterieracing.com, and more importantly the individuals, in their various roles, that ensure each race day runs smoothly.

The race day draws

The draw for the Prince of Wales Stakes.

Race days aside, another important day of the week was draw day. On a Thursday afternoon I livestreamed the draw for the jockeys, jockey agents, and racing stewards. Richard Gawel would pull a pill, (a number for each position) and Mike Newell would correspondingly pull out a singular page for each horse entered in a specific race and hand it to racing secretary, Jackie Eder. In doing so, Eder would call out the horse and the post position according to the number drawn by Gawel. Eder would also announce the rider for every horse entered on Monday and Tuesday’s card.

The draw is a meticulous process, which also illustrates how races come to life from the condition books put together by the race office. In the racing program, if you look at the top of the page for each race, the conditions are relayed to the public: race distance, horse eligibility (age and sex), purse money, as well as prize money for Ontario-breds. This is not an exhaustive list, but one that demonstrates that several conditions makeup the landscape for each race. A race such as The Prince of Wales, (the second jewel of the OLG Canadian Triple Crown) hosted at Fort Erie has specific conditions. The prestigious race is set at a distance of 1 3/16 miles for three-year-olds and open to both sexes foaled in Canada.

Meeting new faces on the backstretch

I would try to spend time on the backstretch meeting horsepeople that call the track home during the racing meet. You’ve seen their names on the racing form – Kevin Buttigieg, Julie Mathes, Anthony Alderson, Richard Davis, Paula Loescher, Desmond Maynard, Kendra Wieczorek, Daryl Ezra, Howard Keen, Jeff Voyce, John Simms – all trainers who welcomed me into the barn and shared a few minutes of their time to talk about a horse and let me snap a photo or two for the ‘gram. No backstretch visit was complete without a visit or at least a wave from Luthia Shirley. Known as ‘Mama Lucy,’ Shirley owned and trained a chestnut filly Madame Bovery this season. Despite her tiny frame and quiet nature, you could feel Lucy’s presence from down the road. Every establishment has legs, a foundation, and every trainer and owner including Lucy provide the bedrock of horses that race across the turf and dirt course at the oval.

Cathy and John Willick. (Mike Bennett/Laurie Langley-forteriehorsepeople.ca)

At the gap where horses entered the track for morning training, the images of Cathy and John Willick are still firmly ingrained in my mind. Outriders at the Fort, they spent their mornings keeping a watchful eye over horses while they trained. On Monday and Tuesday afternoons, they would make sure a loose horse was caught, bring a horse back to the paddock if it needed a last minute rider change, or assist a pony rider with a horse to the gate. The dictionary definition of hardworking should probably add their names to the next edition.

Pepperoni! (Jackie Eder photo)

This story cannot go without mentioning an unassuming bay gelding named Pepperoni. Pepperoni has garnered himself the position as a turf specialist at the border oval after securing back-to-back wins over the turf course. Several times during the season I went to visit the turf specialist on the backstretch. Assistant trainer Darlene Pettipas would provide some mints and Pepperoni, always a cool customer, would graciously accept the treats. To this day, Pepperoni probably remains blissfully unaware that a basic pizza topping catapulted him to the top of the fan’s list this season.

The 2021 season wraps up

There were thirty-nine race days this season and many of my days were spent pondering what change would be on the horizon for the following week of racing as the pandemic lingered on. Safe to say, all good changes came my way. Welcoming fans backs, great cards of racing each week, a successful Prince of Wales day, meeting and seeing new faces; work colleagues, customers and yes, the horses.

On October 26, the final day of racing for this year’s meet, mother nature was not on our side. Racing ended after the fourth race for the safety of both horses and riders. After track announcer Frank Salive signed off for the final time and media updates were posted regarding the final day’s card, I went over to the jockey’s room to grab a quote from Chris Husbands, who captured 52 races at this year’s meet.

Stepping into the jock’s room, I remember the warmth of the room, the connectedness of the riders, the valets, and the clerk of scales as the jocks wrapped up their day, packed their suitcases and got ready for their next venture. While the weather forecast depicted the downpour happening outside, it failed to show that at the very core of the track that day, the real forecast read, ‘We are all here. Another day in the books, and we made it safe and sound.’

Despite starting a new job at a new track in the second year of the pandemic, I found a family at the Fort. I also gained a lot of Optimum points and a penchant for beef jerky as I made the trek from Toronto to Fort Erie several times a week.

Back on the QEW and rolling on to the next venture, the red lights of the Fort Erie Race Track sign fade into the distance. The radio is on, but the words of trusted track announcer, Frank Salive, come to the forefront of my mind.

“So until we meet again, so long for now.”

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To read about Hayley’s 2020 pandemic season as a hotwalker at Woodbine, click here.