Last thoroughbred track folds four months after last standardbred track
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada––Both thoroughbred and standardbred [harness] horse racing appear to be history in Canada west of the Rocky Mountains with the December 5, 2025 permanent closure of the Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver.
Both the first and last dedicated thoroughbred track in British Columbia, opened as Exhibition Park in 1889, Hastings Racecourse folded four months after the permanent closure of the last standardbred track in the province, Fraser Downs in Surrey.
Former Cloverdale Downs went down too
Located 21 miles south of Vancouver, 12 miles north of the U.S. border, Fraser Downs opened in 1976, originally called Cloverdale Downs.
The investors expected to draw bettors from Bellingham and the greater Seattle area, and apparently did for nearly 20 years.
U.S. patronage largely disappeared, however, after the 1995 opening of Emerald Downs, a thoroughbred track in Auburn, Washington, less than an hour’s drive from Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia, the three largest cities in western Washington.
“The end of horse racing in British Columbia will save thousands of horses from being
bred to race in a risky and stressful industry,” exulted Vancouver Humane Society campaigns director Emily Pickett.
No horses left at either track
Hastings Racecourse and Fraser Downs at peak had stabling capacity for about 1,400 horses between them, including about 900 thoroughbreds at Hastings and 500 standardbreds at Fraser, but have probably not stabled that many within the present century, if ever, with interest in both types of horse racing in long-term steady decline.
There were no horses currently stabled at either Hastings Racecourse or Fraser Downs when they closed.
Horse injuries and fatalities at the two tracks rarely made news.
When they did, the numbers were far lower than have been reported in recent years from major U.S. tracks, apparently because fewer horses were running in fewer races.
Limited data on horse deaths available
“Twenty horses died in as many months at Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver due mainly to bone fractures, according to provincial documents released through freedom-of-information legislation,” reported Larry Pyn for the Vancouver Sun on December 27, 2011.
“Thirteen horses were euthanized after leg, shoulder or pelvis fractures, the documents show,” Pyn continued.
“Other deaths were related to medical problems such as pulmonary edema and hemorrhage, perforated intestinal ulcers, foot infections, and brain disease.”
Data obtained by the Vancouver Humane Society showed only four horse deaths at Hastings Racecourse in 2024, following eight horse deaths in 2023.
One three-year-old horse is known to have been euthanized after suffering a compound fracture to the left front leg during a timed workout at Hastings Racecourse on April 13, 2025, shortly before the 2025 racing season began.
Horse deaths at Fraser Downs only came to light when two standardbred horses stabled there were felled in April 2009 by strangles, a streptococcus bacterial disease. The outbreak threatened to force cancellation of the Cloverdale Rodeo, but did not.
Fraser Downs couldn’t survive the rat race
Both Hastings Racecourse and Fraser Downs had been operated for 20 years by the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, also known as Great Canadian Entertainment, founded in 1982 as the Great Canadian Casino Company.
Great Canadian acquired the Hastings Racecourse lease from the city of Vancouver in 2004, then bought Fraser Downs in 2005.
The Fraser Downs investment went literally to rat shit.
“At night, a sea of rats can be seen overtop of horse manure piles. Inside the stables, they crawl atop gates, scurry from stall to stall, and burrow beneath the ground.
“That’s according to Donna Scrannage, a decades-long horse owner and user of the Fraser Downs racetrack in Surrey, where she says the infestation began about five years ago and has only gotten worse,” reported Jon Hernandez for CBC News on May 24, 2025.
Closed in August
Testified Scrannage, “They’re in the feed tubs. They’re in the water buckets. They’re in the stalls constantly.”
Great Canadian responded by ordering all horses out of the stables “for at least three months for pest control,” Hernandez said.
The Fraser Downs stables never reopened. Harness racing was scheduled to resume at Fraser Downs on September 4, 2025, but instead Great Canadian on August 15, 2025 announced permanent closure of all of the equine facilities.
Only the adjacent Elements Casino Surrey remained open.
Hastings casino sold
“The decision follows notice from the City of Surrey, which owns the Cloverdale Fairgrounds where the racetrack is located, that it is terminating the lease,” CBC News reported.
Surrey mayor Brenda Locke told CBC News that the closure was “part of a broader redevelopment plan for Cloverdale Fairgrounds, which include new housing, a $3 billion hospital, public spaces, cultural facilities, and expanded recreation amenities,” CBC News paraphrased.
Hastings Racecourse met a similar demise.
Great Canadian in June 2005 sold the Hastings’ casino operations to the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation.
About six months later the British Columbia government made official that “it would stop sharing a portion of slot-machine revenue with B.C.’s two racetrack-adjacent casinos,” reported Shaurya Kshatri for CBC News, “beginning January 31, 2026.”
Soccer boots the horses
Having already closed everything at Fraser Downs except the casino, Great Canadian then said in a prepared statement that it would close Hastings Raceway as well, because of “a lack of economic feasibility to move forward with another season of horse racing.”
“The casino operations and the simulcast racebook will continue as usual,” said Kshatri.
Just a week later, on December 11, 2025, reported John Mackie of the Vancouver Sun, “The Vancouver Whitecaps,” a professional soccer team, “officially signed an agreement with the City of Vancouver for an ‘exclusive negotiation period’ to pursue [building] a new stadium and ‘entertainment district’ on the site of Hastings Park racecourse.
“The Whitecaps have long eyed the site of Hastings Park racecourse as the potential home for a new sports stadium,” Mackie said.
Internment camp
Hastings Racecourse was previously closed in 1942 and used during World War II as a temporary internment camp for Canadians of Japanese descent, who were later sent to more permanent quarters in the interior of British Columbia and other locations as far east as Farnham, Quebec.
Reopened after World War II, Hastings Racecourse vice president Howard Blank on May 18, 2011 announced that the track would close when its 2012 lease expired, after a 19% decline in revenue, but a more favorable lease arrangement kept the horses running for another 14 years.
Harness racing remains big in Ontario
There are now eight thoroughbred tracks left in Canada: Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, and Fort Erie Race Track in Fort Erie, Ontario; and five in Alberta: Century Downs in Calgary, Century Mile in Edmonton, Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, Evergreen Park in Grand Prairie, and the Rocky Mountain Turf Club in Lethbridge.
Century Downs and Century Mile also host standardbred racing.
One standardbred track each still operate in Manitoba, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia.
(Daniel Leventhal photo)
A dozen standardbred tracks remain active in Ontario, including Clinton Raceway, Dresden Raceway, Flamboro Downs, Georgian Downs, Grand River Raceway, Hanover Raceway, Hiawatha Horse Park, Kawartha Downs, Leamington Raceway, Rideau Carleton Raceway, The Raceway at Western Fair, and Woodbine Mohawk Park.
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Gambling is a cancer on society. And horse racing is a terrible “sport.” Glad to see these tracks shut down. But as with any exploitation of anyone, what happens to them when they are no longer exploited and “useful” is a concern.
Sharing with gratitude and that eternal hope.
Any news that brings us that of the closing of more tracks is good news indeed. Having for many years read of the accounts of the injuries sustained by these magnificent athletes, many running while too young, and the stressful lives they were forced to endure for the entertainment of citizens most of whom had no comprehension of what these creatures endured, I became a robust advocate of closing these tracks. This ‘sport’ had its moment, and now younger people have more opportunities to follow activities that do not abuse animals for amusement or profit and can engage in sports that involve people who willingly chose to participate, unlike those animals who had to run faster than they might have wished because they were forced to do so with spurs or whip!One can only hope that more track closures follow and those of often lethal greyhound racing too Enough!