Hastings Racecourse and Casino has been capturing the hearts and minds of visitors since 1889, featuring live thoroughbred racing, nearly 450 slots, dining, and more. A horse-racing facility and casino at

Hastings Park Hastings Park is a municipal park located in the northeast sector of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in the Hastings-Sunrise neighbourhood. The park features several sports and recreation facilities, including Hastings Racecourse and Pl ...

, four miles from downtown Vancouver. Originally called East Park, it opened for business in 1889, making it Vancouver's longest continuously used professional sports facility.

History

The track was originally known as Exhibition Park Race Track, but has always been referred to by the public and the media as Exhibition Park. July 1, 1939 marked the first time thoroughbred racing used an electric starting gate, the invention of Texan

Clay Puett (Hoyt) Clay Puett (born 1899 Chillicothe, Texas – 1998) was the inventor of the enclosed electric starting gate used at all major thoroughbred race tracks around the world. On July 1, 1939, Puett's invention made its debut at Exhibition Park Ra ...

. Following Canada's declaration of war on Imperial Japan in 1942, Hastings Racecourse was used to house and process Japanese Canadians before being sent to

internment camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

in the interior of British Columbia. On the first Monday in August, a public holiday, the track hosts BC Cup Day that features a series of six races for top Thoroughbreds in various classes. In September, the two most important races for three-year-olds in British Columbia, the British Columbia Oaks and the British Columbia Derby, are run at Hastings Racecourse. On May 18, 2011, the course was reported to be closed at the end of its 2012 lease due to low profits from wagering revenue and slots, as well as difficulty reaching an agreeable new lease with the city. A decision by Great Canadian had to be made by October 31 of that year. The result of those negotiations was that the track remained open and running. In 2012, Hastings Racecourse made international headlines when little-known Mexican-born jockey Mario Gutierrez (who had emigrated to Canada in 2006 and begun riding at Hastings, winning the track's riding titles in 2007 and 2008), won the Santa Anita Derby, the Kentucky Derby, and the Preakness Stakes aboard

I'll Have Another I'll Have Another (foaled April 1, 2009) is a champion American Thoroughbred horse racing, racehorse who won the 2012 Kentucky Derby and 2012 Preakness Stakes, Preakness Stakes. He was bred in Kentucky, owned by Canadian businessman J. Paul Re ...

Graded events

These Grade III events were held at Hastings Racecourse in 2019: *

British Columbia Derby The British Columbia Derby is a Canadian Thoroughbred horse race run annually during the third week of September at Hastings Racecourse (formerly Exhibition Park) in Vancouver, British Columbia. History Prior to 1961 (with the exception of 1949 an ...

Ballerina Stakes The Ballerina Stakes is a Grade I American Thoroughbred horse race for fillies and mares that are three years old or older over a distance of seven furlongs on the dirt track scheduled annually in August at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Sprin ...

* BC Premier's Handicap

References

External links

Hastings Racecourse at the NTRA

Exhibition Park/Hastings Racecourse at the City of Vancouver
{{Authority control Horse racing venues in Canada Casinos in British Columbia Sports venues in Vancouver 1889 establishments in British Columbia Hastings Park Sports venues completed in 1889