Standardbred Canada President & CEO, Ted Smith, and SC Directors George Riley, Tom MacPhee and Eric Johnston, were given a personal tour of the new Summerside Raceway

by Summerside Mayor Basil Stewart.

The facility is multi-dimensional with a Wellness Centre that includes swimming pools, saunas, gyms, squash courts, walking track, a hockey rink that holds 6,000 people, 10 pin and 5 pin bowling alleys and a convention centre that can host 1,000 attendees.

The grandstand, dining room and racino, are linked directly to the hockey rinks and Wellness Centre. Doors from the hockey rink open into the racetrack dining room. The gaming room that hosts the VLTs and two poker tables has a Standardbred racing motif and flat-screen TVs that show live and simulcast harness racing, thereby intertwining racing and gaming.

Newly christened with the name Red Shores at Summerside Raceway has two new barns, one for ship-ins and one for permanent stabling. A new race paddock is under construction and will include new offices for Standardbred Canada Field Representative and the Maritime Provinces Harness Racing Commission (MPHRC) race office and the CPMA Test Barn.

Summerside has been approved for 29 live race days for 2010. Racing starts on May 26 and will operate until October 20. The Lobster Carnival during the week of July 11 will feature the Governor’s Plate for open pacers.

The 2009 Canada Summer Games were held at Summerside and included a new $1 million soccer field adjacent to the racetrack. SC Director Eric Johnston donated 20 acres of his land to the city so that it could build the field, which is aptly named Eric Johnston Field.

A great deal of credit must be given to Mayor Basil Stewart for his diligence in building this state-of-the-art facility for harness racing.

To see the recent photos taken, click here.