As a racetrack with no purses and no wagering, Centre Alfred Gallant has a surprisingly rich history. For more than a quarter-century, it’s been showcasing standardbred racing on Sunday afternoons from May to October to a small but loyal coterie of over 200 fans in the village of Fatima on Quebec’s Magdalen Islands -- a six-hour ferry ride from the next nearest racetrack in Prince Edward Island.
Built, maintained and operated by volunteers, the half-mile oval in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is named after a local priest who loved racing horses. Its roster of past presidents includes one who died tragically at the site while installing fences. When it kicked off its twenty-sixth season this past May, Centre Alfred Gallant also happened to be Quebec’s only operating racetrack. “Horse racing is a very old tradition here, and very much a social event and family activity,” explains the current track president, Gerard Chiasson. “Parents and grandparents bring the young ones, which gets them interested. It’s all very hands-on. The kids can go in and touch the horses, and talk to the drivers and trainers. It’s not about money. It’s about conviviality and love of the animal and nature.”
Chiasson, 38, is a high-school science teacher when he isn’t overseeing the affairs of the non-profit corporation or training his horse, a 12-year-old stallion called Encore Idlam that was gifted to him three years ago by a local breeder. Encore Idlam is one of about two dozen standardbreds who provide the talent pool for the weekly racing spectacle at Centre Alfred Gallant. They’re segregated into three classes, based on recent performances, and race two heats for no purse money, urged on by spectators who pay $3 admission (with kids getting in free). Even the judges are volunteers. Funds collected help cover the operating costs for the track, which has its own starting gate, clubhouse and barns.
“We race just for fun and bragging rights,” grins Chiasson. “It’s like a country fair.”
The Centre has roughly 125 members and an annual operating budget of $50,000. A summer fair is its major annual fund-raiser.
Chiasson has been president since 2007, when he succeeded the late Rosaire Renaud, fatally injured by machinery he was using to drill holes for fence posts at the track. “I’d enjoyed races since my youth but hadn’t really been involved much to that point, other than attending the races,” he admits. “But there was a lot of uncertainty for the Centre after Rosaire died and I decided to get involved because I felt this was something worth preserving.”
The history of horse racing in the Magdalen Islands (population 13,000) predates Centre Alfred Gallant by many decades. Almost all Quebec villages had some form of horse racing at some point in their history, and equines figured prominently in the development and agricultural heritage of the Islands. The Acadian population, for example, worked the land with horses.
The person credited with bringing structure to the activity was colourful priest Alfred Gallant, who died earlier this year, at age 98. Sent to a Magdalen Islands parish by the church in 1937, the Gaspe native embraced and energized his new community, providing much more than spiritual guidance. A mover and shaker, Gallant took an active role in establishing and developing the local cooperative movement. He also was a lifelong horseracing fan, owned and raced his own horses into his 70s, and actively promoted the sport.
“‘Sundays are for racing,’ he used to say,” grins Chiasson.
The races initially were quarter-mile dashes held on the beach or on ice, depending on the season. But in the 1967, at Gallant’s instigation, a racetrack was built in the village of Havre-aux-Maisons. It’s now a full-time training centre for yearlings, many of them destined for racetracks in the Maritimes. The climate is conducive to winter training, with temperatures hovering around zero degrees Celsius.
Even before the collapse of the Quebec racing industry, Magdalen Islands horsemen had a stronger bond with the Maritimes than Quebec. Geographically, it was easier for them to buy horses and compete at racetracks in the Atlantic provinces than in their home province. “About 90 per cent of our standardbreds are Maritime-bred,” says Chiasson. “There are only a few Quebec-breds.”
Many of the Magdalens’ most accomplished horses have come from one stable, that of crab fisherman and fish-plant owner Claude Poirier.
Poirier, 51, has won several Atlantic Sires Stakes and his pacing mare Southview Sally, with $120,000 banked to date, was the Maritime Breeders’ champion at two and three; she was also the Maritimes’ Horse of the Year and leading money-winner in 2007. His horses hold the track records at both Havre-aux-Maisons (1:58.3, Dover Harp) and Centre Alfred-Gallant (1:58.4, Somewhere Special), as well as at several Maritime tracks.
Poirier, who often drives his own horses, got hooked on the sport young -- somewhere around age five. His uncle Alcide owned racehorses and so he began jogging for him at the local training centre at an early age. “In the summer, people fished, but it was quiet here in the winter,” shrugs Poirier. “Our insularity led us to develop activities like training and racing horses to entertain ourselves, especially since it was looked upon favourably by the church.”
The trainer recalls helping Father Gallant rig up his horses during those early days. In the mid-1980s, he started buying his own, mostly claimers. Poirier figures he’s had hundreds since then, virtually all acquired for less than his top range price of $10,000.
His first good one was a Quebec-bred son of Vanishing Point called Chappie Angus, who won the Papermaker Pace at Charlottetown Driving Park in 1993. “I bought him privately for $1,200 at two, before he’d ever won a race,” says Poirier. At four, Chappie Angus won four races in 10 days at Charlottetown.
Poirier’s love of racing means a lot of travel and personal disruption, but he’s willing to pay the price. It’s five hours by ferry to Prince Edward Island, then a one-hour drive to Charlottetown Driving Park, where most of his horses race. To make the trip worthwhile, especially in winter when the ferry doesn’t run every day and travel conditions can be treacherous, Poirier often stays a couple of weeks and races his horses several times.
He currently has seven in training, among them three-year-old Fit For Life colt Ringmaster, a runner-up in five Atlantic Sires Stakes races in 2009, Oceanview Kitty, who took a mark of 1:57.1 at half-mile Summerside Raceway as a two-year-old, and Southview Sally, now preparing for a comeback at age six after losing her first foal, by Jeremes Jet, shortly after delivery this past March. “Nothing relaxes me like the horses,” shrugs Poirier. “I’m at the barn each day at 5:30. My kids help out too. It’s a family thing.”
His goal?
He grins. “To keep doing it as long as possible.”
By Paul Delean