Founded 1860, still running every year since

Woodbine Racetrack

Home to the Queen's Plate — North America's oldest continuously run horse race, going back to 1860 — Woodbine Racetrack in Etobicoke was built as part of a deliberate 1950s plan to consolidate Toronto-area horse racing into one world-class venue.

Our Etobicoke guide mentions Woodbine Racetrack in passing. It deserves more — it's home to the oldest continuously run horse race anywhere in North America.

A deliberate consolidation plan

Toronto-area horse racing traces back to the Ontario Jockey Club, formed in 1881. In 1947, newly appointed OJC director Edward Plunket "E.P." Taylor set out to bring the region's scattered racing up to the standard of North America's best tracks — buying up several smaller local tracks (Hamilton, Thorncliffe, Long Branch, Dufferin and Stamford) and consolidating their racing charters into just three venues: Fort Erie, Greenwood, and a brand-new Woodbine.

The new Woodbine opens (1956)

The new 780-acre Woodbine Racetrack opened in 1956 in Etobicoke, with a one-mile dirt track and a seven-eighths-mile turf course — a genuine step up in scale and standard from the older, scattered venues it replaced.

The Queen's Plate: older than Canada itself

Woodbine hosts the Queen's Plate (known at various points as the King's Plate depending on the reigning monarch), Canada's oldest thoroughbred horse race and the oldest continuously run horse race anywhere in North America — first run in 1860, seven years before Confederation. The race moved to the new Woodbine track in 1956 and has run there ever since. In 1994, Woodbine became the first North American track to run Thoroughbred racing by day and Standardbred (harness) racing by night on the same property.

Sources

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