The traditional end of season race, the Tour de Fort, closed things out in a very non-traditional fashion at the Fort Erie Race Track on Oct. 17, with a stunning 40-length lead vanishing completely down the final stretch.
The Tour de Fort, run at the unorthodox two-mile and seventy yard length, always proves a tricky one for riders and horses alike, but jockey Sofia Vives made the right call when she let Glitter Bay run out to an enormous lead early on.
“Our goal was to sit behind and see if she'd settle,” said Vives after the race, but clearly Glitter Bay had other plans, and decided to run way out in front for the first mile. However, coming down the last few yards, a late charge from Trish the Dish narrowed what looked like a runaway win down to little more than inches at the wire.
“At the quarter poll when I picked up her head she really fired. For two-miles, I thought she should be wearing down but she was game, and when she heard the screaming down the stretch, she was game to win,” said Vives.
The dramatic Tour de Fort closed out a banner season in Fort Erie, where wagering for the 2023 meet topped $46.7 million, which is up 39 percent over the previous season. On-track wagering reached $1.9 million for the season, a 3 percent increase over 2022. The track's signature race, the Prince of Wales Stakes, raked in a record-setting $1.05 million, with total wagering for that card reaching $3.48 million.
Alongside the wagering numbers which climbed steadily all year, the track also packed in the crowds for its popular wiener dog and basset hound races, entertained plenty of music fans during the Tuesday night concert series, and delighted throngs of costumed kids at the brand new Track-O-Lantern event, where ghouls, goblins, and superheroes spent the afternoon trick or treating around the facility.
“We went through more than 4,000 pieces of candy in two hours,” noted James Culic, the track's marketing manager. “The number of kids who came out to trick or treat was overwhelming but after a few emergency runs to Sobeys for more candy, we made sure every Batman, Pikachu, and Minecrafter left with a full bag.”
Live racing will return to the Fort Erie Race Track on May 28, 2024.
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