A British Columbia mayoral candidate is pledging to bring harness racing back to an historic site in Surrey where the sport was abruptly decimated last fall after nearly five decades.

Doug McCallum announced on Thursday, Oct. 8 as part of his Surrey, B.C. mayoral campaign a commitment from a would-be McCallum majority council to rebuild the backstretch barns and the racing oval at the Cloverdale Fairgrounds, sign a new long-term racing lease and bring harness racing back to Cloverdale, with a target of horses on the track for the fall 2027 meet.

“Those barns were Cloverdale. For 49 years they were the first thing you saw at the Fairgrounds, and the families who worked in them were the heart of this community,” said Safe Surrey Coalition mayoral candidate McCallum, a two-time former mayor of Surrey and a past CEO of Harness Racing B.C. “[Incumbent mayor] Brenda Locke did not just close a racetrack. She bulldozed an icon of Cloverdale with nothing to put in its place, and the message to every person who lives here could not have been clearer: she will bulldoze right over you to get what she wants.

“When hundreds of people begged her for a meeting, her office told them to stop calling. When 6,000 people signed a petition, she sent in the bulldozers,” said McCallum. “Grooms, trainers, drivers and the farm families who fed and shod those horses gave their whole lives to that track, and today they are hauling their horses 400 kilometres to Osoyoos to race in front of a closed grandstand. That is what Brenda Locke did to Cloverdale, and she did it for her own vanity pet project.”

Just weeks before the scheduled fall 2025 harness racing meet, the City of Surrey terminated the lease for the fairgrounds land where Great Canadian Entertainment-operated Fraser Downs had hosted racing for 49 years. The backstretch, stabling facilities and racetrack were subsequently dismantled, with Mayor Locke citing redevelopment plans were underway for the land.

McCallum outlined his campaign promises for racing's return to Surrey, stating that a McCallum majority council will:

1. Rebuild the barns and the oval and bring harness racing back to Cloverdale under a new long-term lease, with racing targeted for fall 2027.

2. Cancel Brenda Locke’s vanity pet project. The Fairgrounds belong to the Rodeo, the Country Fair, the Agriplex and the track, and a bylaw will require a public vote before any part of them is ever sold or redeveloped.

3. Protect the heritage of Cloverdale. Old Cloverdale and the Fairgrounds will be preserved as the heart of the community, not cleared for a developer or a mayor’s legacy.

4. Bring the jobs home. The Harness Racing B.C. office returns to the Fairgrounds, and the City works with the industry and the Province to restore a full racing season and the hundreds of jobs that go with it. 

“My promise to Cloverdale is simple. The barns go back up, the horses come home, and nobody at City Hall ever bulldozes over this community again without asking it first,” said McCallum. “Brenda Locke had her say on December 18 when the last barn came down. On October 17, Cloverdale gets its say.”

McCallum and Locke are among seven candidates running for the Office of Mayor, with local media reporting key election issues include housing, development, public safety, community facilities, transportation and taxes. The City of Surrey municipal election takes place on Saturday, Oct. 17, with voting at the City's 52 locations throughout Surrey open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

(Standardbred Canada with files from Safe Surrey Coalition)