TSN to show Thursday racing

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine will have a 3:45 p.m. post time for Thursday racing this year, which will lead into a new 6 p.m. program on The Sports Network in Canada called “Racing Night Live” that begins this week. The two-hour broadcast will be a mix of Thoroughbred racing from Woodbine and Standardbred racing from sister track Woodbine Mohawk Park.

“Working with TSN on ‘Racing Night Live’ will help to open up horse racing to a new generation of Canadian sport fans,” Woodbine Entertainment CEO Jim Lawson said.

The RNL hosts will be Laura Diakun and Jason Portuondo. Brodie Lawson and Chad Rozema will report from trackside.

Thursdays replace traditional Wednesday night racing on the schedule through the summer, and maybe for the entire meet, depending on whether fans will be allowed at the track at some point.

Stakes schedule shuffled

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Woodbine’s stakes schedule got a shake-up this year, with the main casualty being the Grade 1 Canadian International.

The Oct. 18 card will now be headed by the $600,000 E.P. Taylor for fillies and mares. A traditional prep for the International, the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Turf has been pushed back to serve as a supporting feature that day, along with the Grade 2 Nearctic.

Starship Jubilee, the 2019 Canadian Horse of the Year, captured last year’s Grade 1 E.P. Taylor.

“It was a very tough decision to not have the International,” said Jessica Buckley, Woodbine’s senior vice president of racing. “We love that race, but with the uncertainty around international travel, we mostly draw international horses for that race. Keeping the E.P. Taylor, we wanted to keep some tradition on that weekend and still have a strong, Grade 1 card. The E.P. Taylor is such an important race for mares, and we didn’t want to have them miss that opportunity.”

Woodbine has paired up many stakes throughout the 109-day meet. This Saturday’s stakes are the $100,000 Woodstock for 3-year-olds and the $100,000 Star Shoot for 3-yearold fillies.

As usual, the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks and $150,000 Plate Trial will be run together, on Aug. 15. They are key preps for the $1 million Queen’s Plate, which was postponed from June 27 to Sept. 12.

“The team made sure that horses leading up to all of the big stakes had opportunities that made sense on the schedule,” Buckley said. “With fewer race days, we had to get more creative. We paired up some of those colt and filly races that lead up to the Triple Crown, and some of the other races that lead into the graded stakes.”

The Woodbine Mile program goes a week after the Plate on Sept. 19. The Grade 1 Woodbine Mile is a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re in qualifier, as are the two juvenile stakes on Sept. 20, the Grade 1 Summer and Grade 1 Natalma.