They dropped the fresh inside the 1963

Woodbine Racetrack is a race-track to have Thoroughbred horse race in the the new Etobicoke part of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Woodbine Enjoyment Category, Woodbine Racetrack handles and you can computers Canada’s most famous battle, the fresh King’s Dish. The fresh tune try unsealed in the 1956 having a-one-mile egg-shaped dirt song, along with a great eight-eights turf way. [ 1 ] This has been widely refurbished as the 1993, and because 1994 has had about three racecourses. [ 2 ]

Records

The modern Woodbine offers the name in the first place used by an effective racetrack and this operated in the the southern area of Toronto, at the King Street Winz-io NZ Eastern and you can Kingston Street, of 1874 due to 1993. (Since the Old Woodbine Race course was at the brand new south prevent away from Woodbine Avenue, the current Woodbine is no place near it.) Within the 1951, it absolutely was run because of the Ontario Jockey Club (OJC) and you can held the fresh prestigious King’s Plate, but it competed with many different other racetracks inside the Ontario and you may is in need of modernization. [ 3 ]

P. Taylor, began a course of racetrack acquisitions intended for getting the most significant and more than effective user during the Ontario pony racing, exactly like Taylor’s prior to purchases and consolidations regarding Canadian preparing business. Inside the 1952, the fresh OJC bought and you can finalized the cash-shedding Thorncliffe Playground, [ four ] bought and you can finalized the latest Hamilton Racetrack, and you will bought the latest Fort Erie Racetrack having California$780,000 . [ 4 ] Renovations began quickly at the Fort Erie as well as Woodbine, funded from the a general public offering regarding inventory getting California$2 million . [ twenty three ]

For the 1953, the new OJC purchased Stamford Park inside the Stamford township (today section of Niagara Drops, Ontario). It absolutely was finalized and soon after redeveloped towards a residential subdivision. For the 1955, Taylor themselves bought the latest contending Orpen-had Dufferin Park Racetrack and you will Long Department Racetracks to have California$4 billion ($forty two.six mil during the 2023 dollars) [ 5 ] . [ six ] The fresh new Orpen music was in fact signed and you will redeveloped, while the Orpen battle charters moved to the new OJC. The brand new OJC went on the latest Canadian All over the world and you will Cup-and-saucer stakes racing that were stored at the Orpen tracks. [ eight ] The newest rushing charters gotten from the almost every other music let the fresh OJC to perform 196 days of racing, over twice their desired full of 84 months inside 1952. [ twenty three ]

All of the perform from the racetrack acquisitions and you can closures was in fact designed to support another type of “supertrack”. For the 1952, the brand new OJC identified the fresh new precise location of the racetrack at the Path twenty-seven eastern of Toronto airport and you will purchased more than eight hundred miles (160 ha). The fresh new designer picked try Earle C. Morgan. Even when Morgan hadn’t tailored an effective racetrack, he invested next 2 years development the shape hand in hand having Arthur Froelich, who’d designed Movie industry Playground Racetrack and Garden Condition Playground Racetrack in the usa. [ 8 ] The fresh track was designed to hold 40,000 visitors, have generous parking, around three competition courses as well as 2 degree tunes. They had stable place for one,000 horses and you can room having 700 professionals. The fresh grandstand, built to get as many people as close for the end up range that you could, provided several dinner and you will cafeterias. [ 9 ] Structure towards the latest supertrack began for the 1955.

The fresh racetrack opened towards Summer 12, 1956, founded at a price of Ca$13 million ($143 billion inside the 2023 cash). [ 5 ] [ 10 ] It actually was initially referred to as The fresh new Woodbine Racetrack. The existing song try transformed into a combined thoroughbred and you can standardbred song known afterwards since Old Woodbine or, for some of one’s remainder of its records, since the Greenwood Raceway (during standardbred suits) and you can Greenwood Race track (while in the thoroughbred match). The two thoroughbred and two standardbred fits conducted during the Greenwood was in fact gone to live in the brand new Woodbine in the 1994, which was until then only centered on thoroughbred race. For the Summer 30, 1959, King Elizabeth II plus the Duke regarding Edinburgh attended the latest 100th powering of Queen’s Dish, [ 11 ] and you can Queen Elizabeth II once more towards , went to the brand new 151st powering of the Queen’s Dish Stakes and you may displayed trophies.