Sovereign Awards presentation moved to April

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The 36th annual Sovereign Awards ceremony, honoring Canada’s champions of 2010, will be held next year on Friday, April 1.

In most recent years the Sovereign Awards had been presented in mid-December, following the end of the Canadian racing season.

An experiment with a late-January date was conducted last year but the board members of the Jockey Club of Canada, which conducts the Sovereign Award balloting and organizes the ceremony, recently voted to move to the spring date.

Woodbine’s dates request for its 2010 meeting calls for a Saturday, April 2, opening.

The awards ceremony also will be held at Woodbine for the first time since 1996, on the third floor of the grandstand.

The evening will include a welcome-back reception, a buffet-style gourmet dinner, and entertainment.

Voting for the 17 award categories as well as the four media award categories will commence after the Woodbine meeting ends Dec. 5.

The deadline for the completed ballots will be in early January, 2011 and the three nominees in each category will be announced shortly thereafter.