Woodbine offering bonuses for newly acquired horses

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine is offering bonuses to horse people who acquire racehorses from outside Ontario and race them early at next year’s meet.

According to a letter from Jonathan Zammit, Woodbine’s vice president of Thoroughbred racing operations, the bonuses apply to Woodbine horse people that were stabled at the track during the 2019 meet for at least three consecutive months and have submitted a stall application for the 2020 season

To be eligible for a bonus, the acquired horses must be 3-year-olds and older and have never raced or stabled at Woodbine. They must make a start between Oct. 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020, in a race at the $25,000 claiming level or higher outside of Ontario.

The horses who meet that criteria can earn as much as $5,500 in bonuses.

They would receive a $1,000 shipping allowance, which would be payable upon the horse entering an allocated stall on Woodbine’s backstretch before April 18, 2020, and making at least one start on or before June 6, 2020. In addition, the horse would earn $1,500 per start at Woodbine between opening day on April 18 and June 6, 2020, up to a maximum of three starts.

The incentive is likely an attempt to improve Woodbine’s field size in the early days of the meet. While Woodbine’s number of starters per race this meet is comparable to last season, the track saw a decrease during the first two months of the 2019 meet. Between opening day on April 20 and June 2, Woodbine averaged 7.45 starters per race, which was down 4 percent compared to a similar time period in 2018. Woodbine has averaged 8.15 starters per race throughout the 2019 season.

Zammit’s letter also listed some key dates on the 2020 racing calendar, including the backstretch opening on Feb. 24 and training beginning on Feb. 27. The meet will run April 18 through Dec. 13. The 161st running of the Queen’s Plate, the first jewel in the Canadian Triple Crown, is set for June 27.