Thoroughbred racing in British Columbia ends the millennium where it started out – on a heartbreaking piece of land on the shores of Burrard Inlet with a spectacular view of the North Shore mountains. It remains as pretty as a postcard, but unfortunately in the eyes of the racing world it has shrunk to the size of a postage stamp.

During the past century Brighouse and Lansdowne, cherished mile ovals sitting upon pure Fraser River deposits in Richmond, have come and gone. Concrete shopping centres serve as their headstones.

Thoroughbreds also have raced on Vancouver Island, at The Willows and Colwood which have been trampled by the slick-soled shoes of civilization, and at Sandown in Sidney, now leased to the standard-breds for summer meetings.

All we have left is Hastings Park, alias Exhibition Park, which began as East Park in the 1890s.

Horse racing was held first at Beacon Hill Park in Victoria and along the main streets of towns throughout the province. A race day was held May 24, 1859, at Beacon Hill featuring the Queen’s Plate, run in three heats over one mile. Sir James Douglas, the first governor of the province, was on hand to present the Plate to George Roberts of the Hotel de France, owner of the victorious Moustache.

They raced along Columbia Street in New Westminster in the 1860s. A reporter from that era described the strip as “fast and dangerous”.

They thundered down Vancouver streets in the late 1880s. The News-Adviser described a June 24, 1889, event: “A vast crowd of people congregated this afternoon on Howe Street, where the horse racing was arranged to take place. The whole street, from start to finish of the racing ground, was densely lined, and vantage points at the Hotel Vancouver, opposite which the grandstand was placed, and elsewhere were eagerly taken up”.

Some industrious horse lovers, anxious for a permanent facility, cleared an oval out of the woods a few miles from the town centre. The track was 19 feet lower at one end than the other and the infield was full of rocks and charred stumps. Guilles and creeks dotted the surrounding landscape. East Park, which initially encompassed 15 acres, wasn’t fashionable but it was functional and in 1892 racing became a popular weekend attraction.

According to an article by John Bain in the B.C. Thoroughbred, spectators, “came either by a little steamer to George Black’s Wharf on Burrard Inlet, approximately the location of the New Brighton Pool today. Other hardier patrons walked from the end of the streetcar line at Cedar Cove (Powell St. and Victoria Drive).

“Those who braved this overland route, about one mile through bush land, had one distinct attraction in the Columbia Brewery at Cedar Cove which they would make their first and last port of call for the day. Their nickels would buy refreshing schooners of beers, attractive enough to recommend this way as the better route to the races.”

Horsemen imported stock from California and Ontario and there was little money left over for other amenities. There were a few stables and a small grandstand.
The Vancouver Exhibition Association was formed in 1908, and racing was incorporated into the fabric of the agricultural fair over the protests of anti-gambling factions. When Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier, speaking from the new racetrack grandstand, opened the Exhibition in 1910 it was a signal for the first race to begin.

The previous year Brighouse had opened in Richmond. It was originally named Minoru, after King Edward’s 1909 Epsom Derby winner, and it was often described as having the finest racing surface in North America, an accolade which would never be applied to Hastings Park.

Because the land – owned by Sam Brighouse – was infinitely easier to work than the forested East End of Vancouver, the track was built in 90 days at a cost of about $75,000. An estimated 7,000 fans turned out on opening day, August 21, 1909, to begin the first major meeting on the Lower Mainland.

Most fans rode B.C. Electric’s wooden trams from Marpole, but others came in horse-drawn carriages, by horseback or by walking for miles along flat, dusty roads. Originally the bookmaking system was in effect, but bookies were soon abolished and in 1910 pari-mutuel machines – iron men – were installed.

The track’s surface had a natural bounce – believed to be the result of a peat bog lying beneath a perfect mix of clay and alluvial soil – and it was at least partially responsible for numerous Canadian records. The track also became a home for the Vancouver Polo Club and matches played in the infield attracted large crowds.

Pari-mutuel betting had been outlawed in many parts of the United States and for a long time when there was no racing between Mexico and B.C. Some of the best known horsemen on the continent ended up coming to this corner of the world. In 1914 an unprecedented 90-day meet was held in contravention of the law. The Attorney General fined the track $500.

Minoru shut down after the 1914 season when the First World War began and did not reopen until 1920 when it became Brighouse. It operated for 22 seasons until finally closing forever in 1942 when a wartime gas rationing forced all racing to be transferred to Hastings Park.

Brighouse’s charter days moved about a mile north along No. 3 Road to Lansdowne, built in 1924 by a group of horse people led by Sam Randall and Walter Georghegan under the banner of the West Coast Jockey Club Ltd. The underlying reason for the new track was that it allowed them to bring more racing dates to the Lower Mainland. They were allotted 14 days, the same as Brighouse and Hastings.

Charlie Oldfield, who would become the general manager, recalled the beginnings: “Al McLennan, George Norgan and the others came in to help finance the building. Around here they wanted $1.30 for the inside rails and outside fence. Well, I got our poles up around Haney. I had a friend who was a fisherman. I got poles made into rafts and floated them down the Fraser River.

“We got a local firm to build the grandstand. I put in the paddock. We only got the license in February and we opened the track on July 9. I had bought a lot of trees and planted them, and it didn’t look too bad.”

Randall named the track after Lansdowne Park, the football field in Ottawa. It helped to provide a golden age of racing for B.C. When Austin Taylor’s Indian Broom, who had finished third in the 1936 Kentucky Derby, came home later that summer for the Golden Jubilee Handicap he won a race worth $5,000. In Canada, this was second in value only to the King’s Plate.

But when the Second World War ended in 1945 the track and clubhouse needed costly upgrades. Randall was advised to unload Lansdowne and concentrate his money and efforts into Hastings, which was far less appealing to the horsemen but more convenient for fans because it nestled within the city limits with streetcars at its doorstep.
In 1946, Randall sold Lansdowne to the B.C. Turf and Country Club, a consortium led by F. Ronald Graham, a Vancouver industrialist who was a keen horse owner. His partners included singer Bing Crosby, actor Pat O’Brien and Vancouver lawyer G.L. (Pat) Fraser. They intended to create an upscale facility with a turf club catering to wealthy clientele. Crosby and O’Brien enjoyed considerable success along those lines at Del Mar, which had opened outside San Diego in 1937.

But that notion did not succeed in the small Lower Mainland market and business suffered. Shares in the B.C. Turf, which had come out at $2.00 per unit, plummeted to 10 and 15 cents.

The operators sought help from the government but that ended up in a bitter dispute, which culminated in all 1949 racing days being assigned to Hastings. B.C. Turf fought back by refusing to let the horsemen train at Lansdowne or Brighouse, which they had also purchased, thus jeopardizing the entire season.

The leaders of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association were Ken (Doc) Darbyshire, Bill Lochead, and Jack Diamond, a 40-year-old who had siphoned off some of the profits from his thriving meat packing business to establish one of the top stables in the province.

In April of ’49 Diamond and Lochead represented the horsemen at a meeting with B.C. Turf F. Ronald Graham had recently resigned as chairman and was replaced by Pat Fraser. During the election of directors Lochead nominated Diamond from the floor and the nomination, much to Diamond’s surprise, was accepted by Fraser.

But Fraser himself was forced to resign one month later and Peter D. Gordon, whose family operated a large hardware business, became interim president and promised to reopen the tracks for training and to cooperate with Randall to improve the industry. This however, did not happen in time to save the 1949 season at Lansdowne.

Diamond, meanwhile, was busy buying up stock in B.C. Turf for pennies and by the early fifties he held a majority of shares. His friend, Big Al McLennan, whose United Distilleries was next door to Diamond’s Pacific Meats, became president. Diamond was first vice-president; George Norgan, second VP and Jack Pattison, treasurer.

When racing reopened at Lansdowne in 1950 the grandstand was freshly painted, the infield revamped, and the track surface, often neglected to cut costs, was well groomed. There was a mutuels board in the infield which automatically recorded bets and changed odds. Until then the odds had all been changed manually.

Racing advanced throughout the 50’s with the total mutuel handle escalating from $3.7 million in 1950 to $6.1 million in 1959. Getting to Lansdowne over the Marpole Bridge, which spanned the Fraser River, was often exasperating. The bridge had to be opened every time a sizable boat passed under it, thus causing massive traffic jams.

The Oak Street Bridge finally was completed in 1957 but people avoided it because it charged a toll. The toll was removed before the 1960 season opened and expectations were high for a banner season. Diamond called a press conference in March 1960, to unveil plans for a new 5,000-seat grandstand at Lansdowne to be financed through the sale of Brighouse, which was purchased for $620,000 by the people who would turn it into a shopping centre and recreation facilities.

But the fates did not cooperate. Instead of a banner season, 1960 was a bummer. There was a strike in the forest industry and the economy went stagnant. Attendance fell 12 percent; mutuel handle dropped 18 percent. Hastings Park fared no better and suddenly the entire racing industry was staring at an uneasy future.

Thoroughbred racing in the province was at a crossroads and the industry did not necessarily choose the best route.

Both Lansdowne and Hastings were in need of upgrades and not long after the 1960 season was completed the Diamonds and Randalls began talking about the possibility of amalgamation. Sam Randall was now in ailing health and son Bill had taken over as president of the Ascot Jockey Club. Walter Georghegan remained a trusted lieutenant and played a key role in negotiations.

Which party initiated the talks is uncertain but John Dunsmuir, who was president of the PNE where Hastings Park was located, acted as a middleman. When it was over the two sides had agreed to amalgamate under the banner of the B.C. Jockey Club with all racing being held at Hastings Park. Diamond and Randall became co-presidents. As part of the agreement Dunsmuir offered free parking to racetrack patrons.

But in 1973 the newly elected NDP government invalidated that agreement and renegotiated several concessions and the right to charge for parking. The parking charges eventually outstripped the cost of admission and became a huge detriment.

It was one of the things that made Diamond regret the move to Hastings, but in 1960 it seemed the only practical alternative.

Lansdowne had limited parking and no room to expand the barn area. Diamond also feared that if the two sides agreed to move to Lansdowne the PNE would still hold racing at Hastings, either thoroughbreds or standardbreds, which were running at Patterson Park in Ladner at that time.

The B.C. Jockey Club was an immediate success. The mutuel handle increased to the point that the track, which had undergone several transformations over the decades, was completely rebuilt for the 1965 season. The tight turns were expanded and the homestretch straightened out. When it was finished the oval measured a bastard-sized five furlongs and 208 feet, which restricted the distance races could be run. The vast majority are two distances – six and one-half furlongs and a mile and one-sixteenth.

At the time of the expansion horsemen had lobbied for a mile track in the suburbs, and Diamond said he would have agreed to this under one condition: that Hastings Park be leveled and made into parkland. To leave it behind for harness racing to prosper would have been suicidal.

The new 5,000-seat grandstand was a smashing success, even if the men had to wear jackets and the ladies were not allowed to wear pantsuits in the fashionable table terrace. No blue jeans, thank you very much.

In August of 1965 Johnny Longden paid some old debts to Western Canada and came north to ride his 6,000th winner, much to the chagrin of the people at Del Mar.

The mutuel handle rose steadily and received another impetus in 1968 when lights were installed to accommodate night racing.
Throughout this time Lansdowne was still used as a training centre in the spring and some horsemen elected to remain there even after the racing season began. In 1973 Diamond sold Lansdowne for $3 million to Woodward’s for a shopping centre development and spring rehearsals reverted to a training track built inside the main oval at Hastings.

A further extension was made to the clubhouse in 1976 and generally the sport held its own until the last decade of the century when an ever-increasing number of lotteries, the advent of casinos, the arrival of full-card simulcasting and some questionable management decisions culminated in 1999 being one of the most troubling seasons of the century.

In 1993, Diamond’s old nemesis, the NDP government, did not renew the Jockey Club’s lease and it introduced a new Horse
Racing Act to create the Pacific Racing Association as a crown corporation. It would later be changed to a non-profit
society. It was run by a seven-man board of directors appointed from the racing industry and the government. Mohan Jawl was the first chairman.

As in 1961 there was an immediate impact under new management. Live betting increased in 1994 and newly opened teletheatres around the province provided fresh sources of wagering dollars. Simulcast wagering from Hong Kong proved a bountiful success. Purses were increased.

ut the situation has deterioriated the last few years. With simulcasts from major tracks gaining in popularity, live racing has suffered. A shortage of horses has made the job of filling cards very stressful on racing secretaries.

Bob Stirskey, who became general manager after Bill Taylor was fired by the board in 1997 resigned following a troubled 1999 season, which saw the live handle drop to alarming levels. Resignations, firings and defections have become a commonplace occurrence and as the industry galloped into the new millennium, most people had their ambitions under restraint.

There is now almost as much money bet on simulcasts as there is on live cards, which has some dangerous repercussions. When betting drops, big spenders look elsewhere to place their bets since a wager of, say, $200 can reduce the odds significantly.

Simulcasts from Santa Anita, Gulfstream, Churchill Downs and from Hong Kong and Australia have underlined the shortcomings of Hastings Park with its abbreviated homestretch.

Watching a dozen horses turn for home over a long battlefield on a television is often more financially thrilling and sometimes more esthetically pleasing than the live action out front.

Those hardy souls, who carved out that first track in Hastings Township more than 100 years ago, could never have dreamed how much they would shape the course of racing history. If Hastings Park had never existed, the leaders of the industry would have had to stay with those mile tracks or build new ones somewhere else.

Maybe in the next 100 years we’ll get it right.