Truro Raceway kicked off its 2014 season of live racing on Sunday (April 20), and opening day did not come soon enough for horsepeople and fans of the sport that had been away from the action.
“Everybody’s pretty excited to get back racing for sure. It’s been a long winter,” driver Ryan Ellis told the Truro Daily News leading up to the card. “We’ve got quite a long shutdown here so everybody’s looking forward to it, getting some money for feed and what not. The bills keep going all winter, even when we’re not racing.”
Schooner went gate-to-wire to win the program’s feature race, the $1,275 Winners Over Pace, by five lengths in 1:56.4.
As a follow-up report by the Truro Daily News explains, Raymond Tynes, the interim general manager of the Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition, was excited to see such a turnout for opening day.
“I’m just amazed,” Tynes said. “Especially with it being Easter Sunday, we knew we would get the regulars. To all the naysayers out there, I think we’ve proved them wrong.”
Tynes added that, “Under Minister Keith Colwell and his team, they have made my job easy. But without the fans, we don’t have a thing. We wouldn’t be here and I expect things to improve each week.”
A report on the Truro opener by The Chronicle-Herald has quoted racing participant Shelley Burton as saying that the dashes at Truro are “a way of life for so many people,” adding that she is more optimistic about the future of the track than ever before.
(With files from the Truro Daily News and The Chronicle-Herald)