Do you have some friends who’ve never been to the track or haven’t been in a really long time? Here’s your chance to invite them out and host them during the Bring A Friend national promotion.

During the weekend of August 23 – August 25, Standardbred Canada and the 'I Love Canadian Harness Racing' Fan Club are partnering with racetracks across the country to present the Bring A Friend promotion. Here’s your chance to share your passion for Canadian harness racing!

Racetracks will have some great offers and will provide opportunities for our guests to get up close and connect with the horses and horsepeople. Paddock tours, behind the scenes tours, winner’s circle presentations, meet and greets with the drivers and handicapping workshops will be featured at many of the tracks along with free programs, a free $2 bet, and food and beverage discounts.

“This is a grassroots level promotion where the onus is on all of us who are involved in the industry to do our part and introduce some potential new fans to harness racing while engaging them in the on-track experience,” stated John Gallinger, President and CEO of Standardbred Canada, “We are hoping that collectively we can expose more than 1,000 new people to standardbred racing over the course of these three days.”

The challenge is for everyone involved in the industry --- SC members, commission licensees, trades people, etc. to bring a friend to the harness races on this weekend. The friends should be people who have never been to the harness races or haven’t visited a track in the past year.

To ensure our guests get the VIP treatment and have an amazing experience you will be tasked with hosting your own guests and helping them understand what happens at the track. Show them the basics in reading a program, making a bet; explain what happens in between the races, etc.

We are relying on you, the membership and industry participants to drive this event --- promote this, invite your friends and host them at the track.

Standardbred Canada is supporting and promoting this event with extensive web coverage, dedicated web pages, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

We have set up a centralized registration area so that we can track who’s taking part and to help gauge the number of guests for each track. When you register, you will be asked for your name, email, postal code, # of guests you are bringing and the track you will be visiting. Print off the VIP Pass and bring it to the registration desk at the track and you will be entered into a draw to win from $300 in prizes.

For a list of participating tracks and their activities, click here.

To register yourself and your guests, (no names required for guests), click here.