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Canadian Derby

1930 establishments in ManitobaFlat horse races for three-year-oldsGraded stakes races in CanadaHorse races in CanadaLeduc County
Recurring events established in 1930Summer events in Canada

The Canadian Derby is a Canadian Thoroughbred horse race run annually at the Century Mile Racetrack and Casino in Leduc County, Alberta. A Grade III event held in August, it is open to three-year-old horses and is raced on dirt over a distance of one mile and a quarter (10 furlongs). The race was the creation of future Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee R. James Speers and first run in 1930 at his Polo Park Racetrack in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Inaugurated as the Manitoba Stakes, it was restricted to Manitoba-bred horses until 1936 when the race was renamed the Manitoba Derby and made open to three-year-old horses bred in Canada. In 1941, the name was changed again to its present form as the Canadian Derby. In 1942, future Canadian and U.S. Racing Hall of Fame jockey Johnny Longden won this race. As the Canadian Derby grew in prestige and its purse money increased, top horses from Toronto and Montreal began coming west to compete in the race. In 1937 Goldlure won Canada's most prestigious race, the King's Plate. For owner Harry Hatch, trainer Bill Bringloe would later ship the colt 1,300 miles by rail transport from Toronto and win the Derby. Budpath, another King's Plate winner, won the 1941 edition of the Canadian Derby. However, not all eastern-based horses have fared so well. In 1942, Ten To Ace was shipped in from Toronto by leading owner/trainer Harry Giddings Jr. The colt had won the King's Plate as well as the Prince of Wales Stakes and according to Time magazine was being called "the greatest Canadian horse of all time." Not only was Ten To Ace defeated in the Canadian Derby, he finished dead last.In 1956, Polo Park Racetrack was closed and the race was moved to Northlands Park in Edmonton, Alberta. In 2019, the race moved to its present location at the Century Mile Racetrack and Casino south of Edmonton.The Canadian Derby was contested at 1 mile from 1930 to 1933, 1+1⁄4 miles from 1934 to 1956, and 1+3⁄8 miles from 1957 until 2018. The race returned to 1+1⁄4 miles in 2019 when it was moved to Century Mile Racetrack. In 2017, Chief Know It All finished first but the jockey of runner-up Double Bear filed a claim of interference. When the claim was rejected by track stewards the matter was appealed to the Alberta Horse Racing Appeal Tribunal which in July 2018 ruled in favour of the owner of Double Bear. An appeal of the Tribunal's order resulted in an August 2018 Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta ruling that Chief Know It All had interfered and declared Double Bear the winner.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Canadian Derby (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Canadian Derby
79 Street NW, Edmonton Avenue District

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N 53.566111111111 ° E -113.45833333333 °
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Edmonton Northlands

79 Street NW
T5B 0J2 Edmonton, Avenue District
Alberta, Canada
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northlands.com

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Northlands Park
Northlands Park

Northlands Park was the "Alberta A circuit" horse racing track at Northlands in Edmonton, Alberta. The horse racing season generally consisted of a spring harness (Standardbred) meet from February/March, a Thoroughbred meet from May/June to September/October and a fall harness meet to mid-December. Northlands Park (formerly Northlands Spectrum) was the building name for the grandstand. There were three dining areas on the second floor. Colours was the main dining room overlooking the race track and had a seating capacity of 700. Uplinks Theatre was the simulcast restaurant area and featured 6 projection televisions and up to 26 different simulcast race broadcasts from North American tracks and Sha Tin in Hong Kong. Playbook Lounge was open limited hours and was available for private functions, sports broadcast events (27 televisions) and private parties. There were two other concessions on the second floor - Rock's and The Deli - that were open during live horse racing. The track opened in 1900 to replace Rossdale Flats with upgrades in 1995 and 2005.The Slots at Northlands Park were the main-floor slot machine gaming room and featured Las Vegas-style slot machines and VLTs and had two dining areas - the Slot Lounge and the Slot Grill. The Paddock Theatre hosted the post position draw for the Canadian Derby, Northlands Park's largest and most prestigious annual thoroughbred race. Directly outside of the Paddock Theatre was the outdoor paddock area - featuring a barbecue concession window with beer service, paddock viewing terrace and the race commentary television broadcast room. Northlands Park was also the corporate operating name for Edmonton Northlands. The name was adopted from the race track name in 1995 and changed to Northlands in 2006. Northlands Park closed on January 31, 2019. Its successor, the Century Mile Racetrack and Casino, opened on April 1, 2019.

Edmonton Gardens

The Edmonton Gardens was the first indoor hockey arena built in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was originally built as Edmonton Stock Pavilion in 1913, and held 5,200 spectators after its 1966 renovations. It was home to the World Hockey Association's Edmonton Oilers from 1972 to 1974. The Oilers moved to the brand new Northlands Coliseum after the 1973–74 season. In addition to the Oilers, the Edmonton Oil Kings, Edmonton Eskimos hockey team, and Edmonton Flyers played their home games at Edmonton Gardens. It held a wide variety of events, including hockey, curling, basketball, boxing, figure skating, circuses, rodeos, bingo nights, car shows, conventions, horse shows, and bull sales.The arena was built at the fairgrounds in order to be away from the city, thus allowing it to also be used as a livestock pavilion, alongside the stables and horse race track. The opening ceremonies were held on Christmas Day 1913, exactly 19 years after Edmonton's first hockey game, featuring a hockey game between two Stanley Cup finalists, the Edmonton Eskimos and the Edmonton Dominions, which over 2,000 fans attended. Their previous arena, Thistle Rink, had just burnt down that year. The Dominion's forward Russell "Barney" Stanley would become a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the arena would be home to other Stanley Cup finalist teams, Memorial Cup teams, and three Memorial Cups. It was the only home of the Edmonton Flyers (1939–51). The Gardens got the nickname "The Cow Barn" from attendants emphasizing its use for agriculture exhibitions, in particular for livestock shows. It also was notorious for bad sight lines and uncomfortable seats. The girders, that were also in the way of spectators, dripped water onto the ice/play surface creating mounds during play. By the 1960s, it was often criticized as being a fire hazard. A $60,000 improvement in 1963 did little to improve its safety, leading to having seven Edmonton Fire Department firefighters stationed at each event. Media increasingly called it a dirty, obsolete, and rickety building, and an April 15, 1966 Edmonton Journal article called Edmonton Gardens "a disaster waiting to happen. The old house, with its obsolete lighting fixtures, oily wooden floors, and sordid washrooms, is an eyesore to hockey fans." The following month, the city fire chief condemned it, and ordered it closed as a fire hazard. That summer saw a $670,000 renovation that gutted the interior, and replaced the steel girders with 8-inch (200 mm) columns at 45°. The wooden bleachers were replaced with a fireproof concrete grandstand, and reduced the seating capacity to 5,200.The Oilers and Oil Kings moved across 118 Avenue to Northlands Coliseum, in 1974. Demolition of the Gardens began January 20, 1982, but quickly disproved the moniker "accident waiting to happen." "Firstly, they stuffed it with 50 kilograms of dynamite, then, they used a bulldozer, but still the grand old lady of Edmonton sports wouldn't budge," one story reported. "Gardens won't go boom," the headline read, recounting two days of the crew drilling holes into the walls and supports, and then cramming in 320 sticks of dynamite. An Edmonton Journal article on February 25, 1982, read "Gardens 2 TNT 0. A second try at demolishing what's left of the Edmonton Gardens ended with a wham, a puff of dust and peals of laughter. The building stood in mock defiance amid hoots of glee from the gallery (of onlookers)." Northlands Park elected to finish the demolition with a wrecking ball. Another arena, Hall D of the Edmonton Expo Centre, currently occupies the site.