“Horsemen have kind of been down in the dumps because they’ve been talking about it and it never actually happened. Now that it’s actually happening, there have been a lot of smiles on people’s faces.”
Feedback from members of Alberta’s resilient harness racing industry continue to roll in, as yet another mainstream media story profiling the Century Downs Racetrack and Casino has been published.
The above quote has come from 22-year-old horseman Travis Cullen, who has explained in a story by the Calgary Sun that he almost made the move to Ontario in recent years. His patience in the Alberta industry is on the cusp of paying off, as he is primed and excited to race his stock at the Balzac raceway, located just north of Calgary.
“I think everybody’s looking forward to being there (Century Downs) and racing and getting things back rolling,” horseman Gerry Hudon was quoted as saying. “Calgary was such a big part of our lives (when there was live racing at Stampede Park) and everybody else’s life that was in the horse-racing industry and now it’s going to be back going.”
“I wrote the last race that was written at Stampede Park and I’ll be writing the first race that’s written (at Century Downs) in 2015,” Jackson Wittup, Century Downs’ racing secretary, was quoted as saying in the article.
To read the Calgary Sun piece, click here.
(With files from the Calgary Sun)