Officials optimistic with meet set to open Tuesday

Fort Erie Race Track will open its 118th season of live racing Tuesday with a strong nine-race card that attracted 87 entries. Post time is set for 4:15 p.m.

There’s a sense of optimism surrounding the upcoming 40-day meet, which has been extended by three days for the 2015 season. The track is in its second year of a five-year funding agreement with the Ontario government and ended the 2014 season with certainty of a new season for the first time since the slots-at-racetracks program was canceled in 2012. Rick Cowan, chief operating officer of the Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium, which operates the track, said the horsemen have responded as a result of the certainty for the 2015 meet.

“All of the trainers have their horses fit for racing,” he said. “All of the horses are fit compared to last year, where we had fewer horses and some needed a little more conditioning.”

Cowan said there currently are just under 300 horses on the grounds, which is slightly more than there were at this point last year. The track averaged 6.9 starters per race in 2014, but Cowan said with a little luck from the weather, Fort Erie could be set for a much stronger 2015 meeting.

“We’re at the mercy of the weather in some of these cases, unfortunately, especially on our big days,” he said. “Last year, we really got killed by the weather. We had several days in June and July where we had to take races off of the turf, and that really impacted field size. We’re fighting that challenge, but I’m optimistic that we’re going to be able to show growth this year.”

The meet is once again highlighted by the 80th running of the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes, the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown, on July 28. Since moving the premier race to a Tuesday evening back in 2013, the track has seen strong growth on Prince of Wales Day, highlighted by an estimated attendance of 12,000 and record all-sources handle of $1,768,500 in 2014. Cowan said he is hopeful for an even bigger Prince of Wales Day in 2015.

“We’ve moved up post time to 4 p.m., which will allow us to get another race in,” he said. “We’re gunning for a $2 million day on Prince of Wales Day, which I think is achievable given good weather and a competitive field for the race.”

The track also is welcoming a new track announcer in 2015 as Shannon Doyle will take over for Mike Dimoff, who called races at Fort Erie from 2011 to 2014. Doyle also is the track announcer at Western Fair Raceway, and Cowan said Doyle’s appointment has been well received.

“We got a surprisingly large number of positive e-mails from people who know Shannon,” he said. “Mike Dimoff did a great job for us, and we’re sure that Shannon will rise to the occasion and do just as good of a job as Mike did.”

Fort Erie will run Sundays and Tuesdays throughout the meet, with first race post time set for 1:50 p.m. Eastern on Sundays and 4:15 p.m. on Tuesdays. On Sept. 8, Tuesday post time will switch to 1:50 p.m. Closing day is set for Oct. 20.