New Woodbine surface debuts

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By Bruce Murray

TORONTO -- When harness racing returns to Woodbine on Thursday evening, May 22, for its lucrative Summer stakes season, the horses will be travelling around a different racetrack than the one they left in March.

Both the first and last turns of the seven-eighths mile oval have been re-configured with the purpose of further enhancing the flow of the races. Previously, the first turn was banked 4 degrees and the last turn 6 degrees. Under the expertise of renowned racetrack architects
, Charles E. Coon & Sons Inc., both turns have been raised to 12 degrees.

"We are optimistic that spiraling the two turns will be very favourable to the horses and make the races even more competitive," said Hugh Mitchell, Woodbine Entertainment's Sr. Vice-President of Racing, of the $500,000 upgrade. "We hope that it will create more lead changes and that drivers should be able to go two and three wide on the last turn without losing any speed."

Woodbine is home to some of the premier harness races on the continent including the $1.5 million Pepsi North America Cup for three year-old pacers, which will be held on Saturday, June 21.