The new grandstand that officially opened on Sunday, July 6 at Clinton Raceway “cements Clinton's future in horse racing,” said general manager Ian Fleming, who is celebrating his 50th year working at the track.
“We’ve got 65 horses training here every day,” said Fleming. “It’s probably the biggest [Standardbred] backstretch in Ontario. We’ve got 85 Standardbred Canada members in Huron County and they own a couple hundred horses.
“We know the [old] grandstand had a couple years left before it would have been condemned, but they don't come and condemn them and give you a year's notice. They just come in the middle of your race season and say you’re done… So, for us, it keeps Clinton in the racing business long-term.”
The multi-million-dollar project, which received the majority of its funding from Ontario Racing, has been in the works ever since Fleming received a structural report about five years ago saying the old grandstand’s days were numbered.
“We thought we had it lined up a couple years ago, but coming out of COVID-19, the price was far too much,” said Fleming. “It’s because of Ontario Racing that we were able to get it done. We certainly couldn’t have done it on our own.”
Jennifer Bodner, Ontario Racing’s Director of Business Operations, said Ontario Racing couldn’t have done it without the help of the industry’s Long Term Funding Agreement with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG).
“One of the good things that we do every year is provide approximately $6 million in capital funding to the various tracks throughout the province,” Bodner said in her address on Sunday during the grand opening of the grandstand. “One of the things we are very happy to support over the last few years is this brand-new grandstand here at Clinton Raceway. One of the best things that we have in this partnership is our Funding Agreement with OLG. Without OLG's support, our horse racing industry could not do these great things in rural Ontario. So, thank you to OLG for their support of our industry.”
Fleming said the new grandstand, which is fully accessible and features an elevator, was built to be multi-use to help Clinton Raceway drive more revenue.
“We’ve had a lot of inquiries and we're going to start renting it out for retirement parties, concerts and we're going to use that money for purses,” said Fleming. “We have a tote board we can use to run movie nights and those kind of things, but we’re hoping next year we can generate $50,000 for purses. That’s one thing everyone agrees on, that purses should be higher. So, we’re working on that.”
Fleming said he’s proud the new facility was built almost exclusively by some 20 different local contractors, which employed hundreds of people over the 10 months of construction. The government’s investment in the project churned many times over in the rural economy.
“It's huge for us,” said Clint McCann, one of the owners of McCann Redi-Mix based in Dashwood, Ont. and the manager of the company’s Merner Contracting division based in Clinton. “It's months of work for our guys… A lot of my guys from Merner Contracting are Clinton residents. So, they're quite proud of it.”
McCann Redi-Mix did all the concrete work and excavation on the project.
“A lot of soil had to be dug out and then built up,” said Fleming. “It’s at track level now, whereas, if you'd have stood in front of the grandstand a year ago, you would have been about a foot-and-half below the track.”
Jayden’s Mechanical in Exeter, Ont. did the electrical work on the project. One of their electricians, Josh Plunkett, is a Clinton native that went to high school at Central Huron Secondary School, which is a 10-minute walk from Clinton Raceway.
“I spent a fair bit of time at the old grandstand right by the baseball diamond,” said Plunkett. “I was around there a lot and it’s just down the road from the high school. So, to get the funding and get a chance to work on it has been pretty cool.
“Pretty much everyone here you are either friends with or you see them around at some point or another. It’s cool to get to work with local guys on such a big project. But I didn’t really know how big of a deal it was until I saw how many people stopped to take a look when they drove by or came into the parking lot. That’s how much it means to the community.”
That the new grandstand opened on the weekend the town of Clinton held a homecoming to celebrate its 150th anniversary is no surprise. The people of the community are proud of their history.
Now, 55 years after the Clinton Kinsmen started an extended meet at the track in 1970 when pari-mutuel wagering was introduced, the facility is reborn.
The new grandstand holds fewer people – down from 1,000 to 400 – but has more bucket seats than the old building. Also, there is now more outdoor patio space.
“For sure there’s criticism that [there’s less grandstand seating], but the space itself we made bigger,” said Fleming. “People want to be outside on patios. We’ve got a very big patio and we have an event tent where charity groups can do fundraising. We’ve actually got much more space for people to hang out than we used to.”
For days when more seating is needed, bleachers can be brought in and set up in front of the grandstand, said Fleming.
The new grandstand is just the latest upgrade to this part of Clinton in recent years. The REACH Huron Centre educational centre, a new hockey arena, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) station and new fire department were all built right beside the racetrack and funded, in some measure, by the horse racing industry. The municipality receives a cut from the small slot machine facility on site and has used that money to reinvest in facilities.
“The municipality has received $15 million [from the slot hall] and we got slots because we had horse racing,” said Fleming.
The racetrack has also attracted people to the community, said Fleming, and a lot of horses are produced in the region.
“We’ve had a couple people move here from Goderich,” said Fleming. “They moved and bought houses here to train horses here… So, [horse racing] generates a lot more economic activity here than you might see at first.
“The grandstand is a very small part of what the horse business has done for Clinton.”
(Ontario Racing)