Evergreen Park. Photo Credit: EverythingGP stock photos

By Shane Clausing

horse racing

Horse racing at Evergreen Park inching closer to return

Jun 2, 2020 | 1:10 PM

As Alberta’s active COVID-19 case rate remains relatively low, it looks like horse racing across the province will be giving the green light to operate for the 2020 season.

With only 400 active cases in Alberta, the province is shifting their attention to phase two of its planned provincial relaunch’and those plans could include the re-opening of horse racing tracks.

Dan Gorman, the General Manager at Evergreen Park says while there is still work to be done, the province is supporting the re-opening.

“We’re definitely confident that horse racing will go on this summer at Evergreen Park and across the province, I’ll be it without fans. There are a few more hurdles we have to get past and work with Alberta Health Services to make sure we’re following all the protocol and that it’s still ok to open for racing.”

“Certainly, the Government of Alberta has firmly committed to supporting the re-opening of Horse Racing Alberta and also the stabilization and long-term sustainability of our industry and they’ll be announcing some more details about that down the road. But we’re very excited about the fact that it’s looking very strongly that horse racing will be able to go ahead this summer.”

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Gorman tells EverythingGP that the track at Evergreen Park is aiming to open their season on July 11 and have run races until the end of August.

With a hopeful start date of July 11, Gorman thinks that this date will allow for enough time to get jockeys over from across the border.

“A number of the jockeys are already in the province. There is still a few more jockeys that we are looking at that would be coming in from a few other countries and they would obviously have to self-isolate for two weeks. So far, it’s looking pretty good and we are very hopeful that our numbers will be what we need them to be when racing would start with us.”

So far the province has not set a start date on when race tracks could re-open and all tracks that re-open must be approved by AHS.

The track is currently working on it’s re-opening plan for AHS, which includes specific measures about social distancing practices and safety measures.

When the track opens all races that take place will be streamed online and fans will have access to the race and online betting for free.

Gorman mentioned that a track in Manitoba has been using the technology and they’ve seen a lot of success with the online features.

“Right now we have HBI betting available online, you just have to set up and account and you could do it on your phone. We are also adding ‘Xpressbet’ which is the other main online betting format in Alberta, and it’s our plan to have that up and running by July.”

The betting websites and apps also allow people to bet on other races across the country.

“There is certainly a huge support and appetite for horse racing. It just does so much for the economy and gives back through agriculture and the many breeding farms,” said Gorman. “There’s just so many different facets to horse racing other than just what you see on the track that gives back to the Alberta economy, we’re very excited to move ahead.”