Members of the local harness horse racing community are concerned about their future after one of two horse racing tracks in Metro Vancouver suddenly closed without notice.
Cloverdale’s Fraser Downs Racetrack announced it would shut down immediately earlier this month after the City of Surrey informed the racetrack’s owner it was terminating its lease.
Trainers had been preparing for the racing season to start in September. The news of the sudden shutdown has left them scrambling.
“I’m feeling a sense of anger that they didn’t give us warning and just don’t know where we’re going next with all these horses,” says Randy Rutledge, who owns a farm in Aldergrove.
He says he’s taken in some of the displaced horses from Fraser Downs.
“A lot of people that are grooms, they’re stuck with no job. They’re going to have to get into something else and learn something else.”
Cody Easton, a trainer at Fraser Downs, says breeding a racehorse is a long-term investment.
“All the horses that are bred in B.C. have now been devalued because their earning potential is cut down by probably 10 times if not more,” he said.
The track, BC’s only standardbred racing facility, has been a fixture in Cloverdale since 1976.
Frustrated industry members held a rally outside the adjacent Elements Casino Friday evening, saying the city’s decision ends not only horse racing but also decades of local heritage.
“We’re just trying to rally together to show the City of Surrey that what they’ve done is just wrong,” said Brent Bill, a Fraser Downs trainer and a demonstrator at Friday’s rally.
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“It’s going to hurt a lot of people. It’s going to get rid of a lot of horses out of the community. It’s just bad.”
In an e-mailed statement, Surrey mayor Brenda Locke said the city is ending its lease with Fraser Downs to begin planning and pre-construction work on revitalizing the Cloverdale Fairgrounds and Town Centre.
“This revitalization will deliver new housing and public spaces, support the $3-billion hospital, expand recreation like the Sports & Ice Complex, and create a stronger venue network for cultural events,” she said.
“The racetrack and backstretch occupy more than 12 acres at the heart of the Fairgrounds. Releasing that land now allows us to build the internal road grid, utilities, and sites for recreation and cultural facilities that the community needs.”
But for the harness horse racing community, the loss is immediate. Many racers say they’ve been left with nowhere to go and no way to recover years of investment.
“In my opinion, there’s no way the city can understand the industry and the viability of it,” said Easton.
“If the mayor had an idea of what goes into this industry and the effect this industry has on the economy, then she wouldn’t just pull the rug out from underneath us. There would have been consultation. Even if there was a plan to develop, you make a plan, include us in your plan and give us a timeline for when development is going to start.”
Human society demands racecourse changes
Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver remains the only horse racing facility left in the Lower Mainland. It hosts thoroughbred horse racing events, whereas Fraser Downs hosted standardbred racing.
The lease for that racetrack expires next May. Vancouver city councillor Mike Klassen says the search for a permanent stadium for the Vancouver Whitecaps could be a factor in the track’s fate.
“I think, for the vision that is being put forward right now, it’s definitely around where the racetrack is,” he said.
“It’s a significant amount of acreage right there so it will only take part of that, if indeed it goes forward. The other side, where we had the former Empire Stadium, that’s potentially an option. but of course that is an actively used park facility and not one that we want to take away.”
Animal advocacy groups in B.C. have been critical of the horse racing industry. In a news release Monday, the Vancouver Humane Society said it welcomed the end of horse racing at Fraser Downs.
“While the closure at Fraser Downs marks an end to racing at that site, it is emblematic of a wider, long-overdue shift away from horse racing,” said Vancouver Humane Society campaign director Emily Pickett.
“Horse racing inherently subjects horses to pressure and danger, debilitating injuries, early physical decline, and at times fatal outcomes.”
The VHS says it’s tracked at least 14 horse deaths at the Hastings Racecourse since 2023.
