Grass Racing Suspended at Woodbine

[Wandering Eyes]

Grass racing has been suspended at Woodbine from Friday to Sunday. The jockeys consider the course to be frozen and unsafe and are not keen on racing on it for the rest of the season.

The first race of Wednesday’s card was not run because of an impasse between the jockeys and the management of Woodbine Entertainment Group about continuing to race over the turf, even though the card was scheduled only for the main track.

Robert King, Executive Director of the Jockeys’ Benefit Association of Canada, said the riders wanted to discuss the situation with turf racing before the card, but it was WEG management that cancelled the first race.

“We said we didn’t want to leave the room until we discussed the turf situation and they said they weren’t going to talk about it,” King said. “They cancelled the races, not us. Why do we always have to be the ones that make the call [to cancel races because of track conditions]? Why do we have to say it’s unsafe? You obviously know it’s unsafe.”

King said at this point he is not sure whether WEG will agree to remove the remaining grass racing this year off the turf.

Turf racing was moved to the main track last Saturday because of the riders’ concerns. However, a race was run on the grass Sunday, and after the jockeys deemed it unsafe, the remainder of the grass races were moved to the main track.

“Enough’s enough, horses and jockeys are going to get hurt,” King said. “We’ve told them repeatedly that it’s dangerous. We don’t want horses to get Lasix [and then not race]. We’re always made to look bad.”

Racing will continue through December this year because the schedule started a week later. Turf racing at Woodbine normally ends in October.

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