Home > Woodbine Racetrack

The track was opened in 1956. It has been extensively remodelled since 1993, and in 2004 has three racecourses:

• The outermost, the E. P. Taylor turf course for thoroughbreds, is one and a half miles long with a chute allowing races of a mile and an eighth to be run around one turn. It is irregularly shaped, the clubhouse turn departing from the traditional North American oval, and the backstretch is from 2' 6" to 3' (80 cm to 90 cm) higher than the homestretch
• Inside the Taylor course is the main dirt course for thoroughbreds, an oval one mile in circumference with chutes facilitating races at seven furlongs and at a mile and a quarter.
• Inside the dirt course is an oval standardbred racecourse seven-eighths of a mile in circumference, made of crushed limestone

1 History

The current Woodbine carries the name originally used by a racetrack which operated in east Toronto, at Queen Street East and Kingston Road, from 1874 through 1993. On June 12, 1956 the name was transferred to the new racetrack; the old track was converted to a combined thoroughbred and standardbred track known thereafter as Old Woodbine or, for most of the rest of its history, as Greenwood Raceway (during standardbred meets) and Greenwood Race Track (during thoroughbred meets). The two thoroughbred and two standardbred meets conducted there were transferred to the new Woodbine in 1994; it had been exclusively devoted to thoroughbred racing before then.

The Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championship was held at Woodbine in 1996.

2 Races

Important races run at Woodbine include:

• the Queen's Plate, a grade 1-C stakes for three-year-old Canadian-bred thoroughbreds, first leg of the Canadian Triple CrownThe Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing Triple Crown for short, but the term is also used in other sports, and thus the full name should be used when it could cause confusion) consists of three races for three-year-old thoroughbred horses. Winning all thr
• the Breeders' Stakes , a grade 1-C stakes for three-year-old Canadian-bred thoroughbreds, third leg of the Canadian Triple Crown
• the ATTO Mile , a grade I thoroughbred turf stakes
• the Canadian International , a grade 1 thoroughbred turf stakes
• the North America CupThe North America Cup is an annual harness racing event held at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for 3-year-old standardbred pacing horses. Inaugurated in 1984 at Greenwood Raceway, the race is the first leg of harness racing’s Grand Slam Pr, an open stakes for three-year-old pacers; it has the largest purse ($1.5 million Cdn.) of any race at Woodbine
• the Canadian Pacing Derby , despite its name, an open stakes for aged (four years old and older) pacers; a derby is usually restricted to three-year-olds
• the Metro Stakes , an open event for two-year-old pacers

The ground floor of the stands houses a slot machineTrump Taj Mahal A slot machine is a certain type of gambling machine. History The slot machine was invented in 1895 by Charles Fey of San Francisco, California. The first machine, known as Liberty Bell had pictures of diamonds, hearts, spades, and cracked parlour. Some of the income from the slot machines is used to increase the horserace purses.