At Standardbred Canada, a lot of work goes into running the National Driving Championship (NDC) that takes place, nationwide, every two years, to see who will represent us on the world stage in the biennial World Driving Championship (WDC).

In August of 2027, however, it's the WDC itself that will be taking place, nationwide, on Canadian soil, and I’m a bit more worried about how we’re going to look to the world via simulcast, than I am about who will be wearing the red-and-white on the racetrack.

One reason for this is that I know, as the defending World Champion, two-time WDC winner James MacDonald, will be one of our two representatives. I’m not saying this just because he’s a friend of mine, but anybody that has spent any time around James realizes he’s just a good, all-around Canadian kid. He’s genuine, he says and does all the right things, and he can drive with the best of them.

I had to write this column before the 2026 NDC was contested at Clinton Raceway on July 26th, but I also have faith that whichever of the eight drivers who wins (won) there will represent us with both class and talent as well.

No, what concerns me more at this point is how we might look, as a proud harness racing nation, via simulcast, if our often empty tarmacs and grandstands are shown to the rest of the world on TV.

I admit that I’ve been spoiled when it comes to attending great sporting events: I’ve been in attendance at the Kentucky Derby, with over 132,000 others. I was in the Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia, in 2000, with over 110,000 others, for seven of the nine nights of Summer Olympics Track & Field. I’ve attended a Premier League soccer match, multiple Blue Jays playoff games, the CFL Eastern Final and a half-a-dozen or so NFL matches as well.

Sports are basically built around the live experience - period - and harness racing should be no different.

I’ve also been to the Little Brown Jug, with its awesome crowds, at least a dozen times, and I grew up basically taking the large and ‘interesting’ crowds at Greenwood Raceway for granted. Some may not believe this, but the year that Precious Bunny won the North America Cup (1991), it actually took us 25-30 minutes to make our way into the Greenwood grandstand from our cars.

Harness racing is a spectator sport, and if you think - for a single minute - that we can survive without being one, then you’re delusional.

Look at the best events in our sport, some of which we’ve covered in TROT over the past year: The Prix d’Amerique, the Elitlopp, the North America Cup, Little Brown Jug, Hambletonian and Breeders Crown.

Are all the best trainers, drivers and horses at these events? Yes, they are.

Do you know who else are there? Fans. Lots of them. And I can make a strong argument that the fans are the more important ingredient to the success and excitement of each event.

If there were 20,000 fans in the crowd, a card of cheap claimers would still make for an entertaining night at the races. But would the Hambo card always be entertaining to watch in-person if there were only 75 people in attendance? No chance.

Standardbred Canada just released the schedule for the WDC in August of 2027, with stops at Century Downs and The Track On 2 in Alberta, Woodbine Mohawk Park in Ontario, Hippodrome 3R in Quebec, and Red Shores Charlottetown in PEI.

I believe it’s a given - especially during Old Home Week - that the crowd at the finale in Charlottetown will be a large one, as our friends in Atlantic Canada - thankfully - still make it a habit to attend the races in-person.

Let’s take it upon ourselves, to make sure that - no matter what - the other four venues are packed with good crowds when the WDC stops at each of them as well.

Speaking of Atlantic Canada, I have to thank Damian MacLellan, because it was something the 2025 O’Brien Future Star Award winner said in our feature story (in this very issue) on 100 years of racing in Inverness, that gave me the idea for this column.

To paraphrase, Damian said that he thought it was a bit strange that Inverness Raceway - when the town of Inverness has a population of just over 1,000 people - packs the stands and tarmac most every night they race, while on a typical race night in Ontario, “Nobody is standing along the fence.”

Damian: I couldn’t agree more.

It’s a good question, it’s a fair question, and although I have some strong opinions as to why that is, I don’t have a definite answer that I can print here.

All I can say for sure is that I admire the tracks like Inverness, Kawartha Downs, Clinton, Charlottetown, Hanover and others, that still make the effort to put people in the stands.

I’m also a bit envious of those places, because it makes me miss the old Greenwood days that much more, and realize how much I took them for granted.

Most of all, however, I just hope that we can count on our fans, participants and racetrack operators, to help make those five WDC cards in August, 2027 magical. The eyes of the Standardbred world will be focussing on Canada that week, and I’m certain that our two driving representatives won’t let us down - let’s not let them down either.

Dan Fisher
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