The Mohawk summer meet comes to an end tonight as live harness racing shifts back to Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto this Thursday, October 9.
The Fall/Winter Meet, which runs through April, will be boosted by a 5 per cent increase to purses which comes into effect on opening night.
There is also plenty of excitement surrounding the brand new state-of-the-art paddock barn which has been under construction since early Spring.
According to WEG's Vice President of Standardbred Racing, Bruce Murray, the facility rivals any of its kind in North America.
"The new paddock is a fabulous building that from the outside resembles a barn one might see in the middle of Kentucky, only larger," he says.
"It's 62,000 square feet, which is more than 10,000 square feet larger than the old paddock at Woodbine. Inside are 125 stalls, 18 lasix stalls, offices for the ORC, Standardbred Canada, Bookkeeper, and Race Office, in addition to a TV studio and a second floor lounge overlooking the first turn."
Check out the October issue of Trot Magazine for pictures of the new paddock.
When racing returns to Woodbine, the current schedule remains in effect for the first four weeks with programs on Monday nights at 7:20 p.m. and Thursday through Sunday nights, with a 7:30 p.m. start time on those evenings.
Following that, the schedule changes to four days a week, with no Sunday racing for the remainder of the 2008 season.
The Fall schedule features some major events including the $2.5 million 'Fall Four' for the best two-year-olds in North America and the $2.4 million Super Finals for the top performers in the Ontario Sires Stakes.
(With files from WEG)