Harness, car racing seasons on hold.
Northside Downs forced to delay start of season due to COVID-19 lockdown
NORTH SYDNEY — Northside Downs had hoped to be off and running this weekend, but instead will have to continue trotting to the season opener for the time being.
The North Sydney venue was scheduled to hold its first race date of the season on Saturday, however high daily COVID-19 numbers and a provincial lockdown has forced a delay in the start of the 2021 campaign.
“I would say the majority of the horses were and are ready to race as we speak, but they're kind of in a holding pattern right now until we get further word from public health,” said Joel LeBlanc, chairman of Harness Racing Cape Breton.
“We have to take everything into context, everyone wants to get racing, but obviously the health situation with the province is a higher priority than us starting our season.”
Northside Downs was scheduled to have qualifying races on May 1 and May 8 prior to the season opener on Saturday. LeBlanc said when the track is given permission to open, qualifying races will have to take place before anything else.
“When we're given the OK to resume, the first Saturday available will be our qualifying date and the next Saturday will be our first race date, but we don't know when that will be right now,” said LeBlanc.
“We're optimistic that if things start to turn around in our favour health-wise in the province that we may be able to get going as soon as possible and have another successful season.”
REPEAT PERFORMANCE
Northside Downs dealt with a similar situation last year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, harness racing didn't begin at the venue until mid-June, at first with no spectators permitted on the grounds.
“We have a little bit of experience going through this, and although we started racing in June, we still were able to have a successful year,” said LeBlanc, noting he anticipates the season starting without
spectators, however nothing has been confirmed as of yet.
Mark Pezzarello has been driving horses for 19 years and was disappointed to hear the start of the season was going to be delayed.
“I think it suck. If you're able to golf, you should be able to have horse races, don't you think?” said Pezzarello, addressing the fact that golf courses are allowed to operate under provincial guidelines during the lockdown.
“I love golf, don't get me wrong, but I love racing horses too. You drive by the golf course and it's packed, it just doesn't make sense to me.”
Although he understands the current situation, Pezzarello believes it's easier to socially distance from each other while harness racing than it is on the golf course.
“If you're racing you're basically six feet apart from everybody because you have to take the horse into account and the sulky cart — nobody is really close to anybody,” said Pezzarello.
Pezzarello, who drives for various local owners, said
trainers will have to continue to train their horses during the pause in preparation for when harness racing is permitted in the province.
“You keep jogging and training them, but you don't want to keep going fast miles with them because you'll wear them out for no reason,” he said, noting Northside Downs did a great job with health protocols last season.
“You have to keep exercising them ... you can't let them down because they will fall far behind, so you have to put the work into them every day.”
WAGERING UP
Last season, Northside Downs was able to have 23 race dates, despite a season opening delay of close to a month.
Meanwhile, this season, Northside Downs was scheduled for have 30 race dates with 26 of those slated for Saturdays — a day organizers don't want to change.
“We would like to stick to our Saturday dates, they've really been our bread and butter as far as our spectators and online wagering,” said Leblanc, noting online wagering has increased at both Northside Downs and Truro Raceway over the past year.
“There's not really a whole lot of other racing going on in Canada at the same time and it's really a time slot that we want to keep.”
Harness racing is currently taking place in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
The Atlantic Sires Stakes program is scheduled to have its three-year-old pacing colts take to the track at Northside Downs on June 12, however, LeBlanc doesn't expect that to happen as planned.
“It hasn't been officially moved yet, but we are expecting it to be pushed back,” said LeBlanc. “The travel restrictions are the issue (right now) and the Atlantic Sires Stakes did put out a schedule … I think they're going to redo the schedule based on the travel bubble.”
LeBlanc and Pezzarello are both optimistic there will be a season this year.
“I think we'll race,” said Pezzarello. “I think if we're racing by July 1 we'll be doing good and that's just my opinion. The cases are slowly coming down, but I'm hoping by July we'll be back to racing again.”
Harness racing at Truro Raceway was originally scheduled to start this Sunday, however like Northside Downs, the season has been delayed. Meanwhile, Inverness Raceway is slated to begin its season on June 6 as of now.