Hastings meet opens with schedule change

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The 2024 Hastings season gets under way Saturday with a six-race card that begins at 2:30 p.m. Pacific.

There is a major change to the 45-day meet that concludes Oct. 20. Sundays have been dropped during the early part of the schedule, and racing will be conducted on Fridays and Saturdays. The first Friday is set for May 10. Sundays will replace Fridays on Sept. 15. Post times for Saturday, Sunday, and holiday Mondays are 2:30 p.m. Friday racing will begin at 7 p.m.

There is no live racing scheduled during the annual Pacific National Exhibition Fair that will run from Aug. 17-25. Post time for the Monday, Aug. 26, card is 7 p.m. The two-day schedule resumes on Friday, Sept. 6.

Dawn Lupul, manager of racing and communications at Hastings, is excited about the upcoming season. Lupul holds the same position for Fraser Downs, the Standardbred track located in Cloverdale, a suburb of Vancouver.

“We are coming off a good meet last year and this season is shaping up even better,” Lupul said. “We are instituting some of the same things we used at Fraser Downs and the mutuel handle at the recent meet was up significantly.

“We are being more aggressive with marketing, especially social media. Product placement with Fraser has been very important. You’re not going to stay off every racetrack, but with our late start time on Saturday we shouldn’t be going against too many tracks. Our low 15 percent takeout is very popular, and we will be offering attractive wagering incentives through our ADW partners.”

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The purses at Hastings will be the same as last year, and the $1.7 million stakes schedule is similar. Kicking off the schedule on June 8 are the $50,000 Emerald Downs for fillies and mares and the $50,000 George Royal for 3-year-olds and up. Both races will be contested at 6 1/2 furlongs.

The highlight of the meet is the Grade 3, $125,00 British Columbia Derby on Sept. 14. The 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds will be supported by two $100,000 races – the,Jack Diamond Futurity and Sadie Diamond Futurity – and the $75,000 B.C. Oaks.

The Grade 3, $100,000 Premiers for 3-year-olds and up and the $100,000 Ballerina for fillies and mares share the spotlight Oct. 5.

B.C. Cup Day, which features six $50,00 stakes races, is set for Aug. 5.

Despite the slow beginning in terms of the numbers of horses entered for opening day, racing secretary Scott Hensen is optimistic about moving forward with better field size compared to last year.

“On paper and from the number of workouts recorded, we have roughly 8 percent more horses on the grounds than we did last year,” Hensen said. “A lot of trainers said they were one work short from being able to run this weekend.”

The Craig MacPherson-trained Lucky Force, who runs well fresh, looks like the one to beat in a $25,000 claiming race that will serve as the feature.

Cerebro will be making his first start on dirt after racing on turf and Tapeta at Woodbine, where he compiled a 3-3-0 record from 15 starts.

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