GOOD NEWS FOR HORSEMEN
Ten-year lease signed with Northside Downs.
It appears that Northside Downs will feature harness racing for at least the next 10 years.
Harness Racing Cape Breton, a non-profit organization comprised of people in the local horse community, recently signed a new 10-year contract with the Cape Breton Federation of Agriculture.
The deal essentially means harness racing will continue at Northside Downs, the horse racing track at North Sydney’s Cape Breton County Exhibition grounds.
“We’ve been negotiating with them over the winter to try and get a deal that was good for both sides and we finally agreed on it,” confirmed Harold LeBlanc, spokesperson for Harness Racing Cape Breton, an organization that was established in 2014.
While no details of the contract were released, it paves the road for some stability in the local harness racing scene that has seen some turbulent times over the past few years.
The North Sydney track dates back to 1898 and enjoyed its hey-day in the 1930s and 1940s, when the facility was a popular stop on the Maritimes circuit and boasted crowds of up to 5,000 people.
However, Northside Downs
had mostly served as a training track since the 1950s but reopened in 2010 following the closure of Sydney’s Tartan Downs, a track that experienced its own glory days in the 1970s and 1980s when it was called the Cape Breton Sports Centre and usually featured three cards of racing per week.
For LeBlanc, the new trackleasing contract bodes well for the local horse community.
“We have a good horse population and we always get good crowds for the racing and we also run the simulcasts and we’re doing good there, so things are looking up,” said LeBlanc.
The simulcasts of races from across North America are broadcast at the Little Vegas Showroom in Sydney.
The harness racing season generally starts in the second
week of May and wraps up in the second week of November.
Meanwhile, the Cape Breton Horse Owners Association will host its annual Spring Fling dance and fundraiser on Saturday at the New Waterford French Club. Money raised at the event will be spent on new number saddle pads for the harness-racing horses.