All Eyes on Fort Erie

Racing Corner – All Eyes on Fort Erie

BY JENNIFER MORRISON

Fort Erie Race Track

This week we celebrate all things Fort Erie Racetrack as its signature race, the $400,000 Prince of Wales, is set to be run for the 90th time on September 9.

Since 1929 when Lion Hearted roared to victory in the first Prince of Wales run at Thorncliffe Park, the race has been won by some of the country's greatest racehorses.

The race moved to Fort Erie in 1959 and was run on the grass while being pegged as the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown.

Rick Cowan, former COO of Fort Erie and now retired spoke before the post position draw on Thursday.

“For that day, Fort Erie is the focal point of North American racing,” said Cowan from his home in Florida. We have had great horses like With Approval, Izvestia and Dance Smartly win the Prince of Wales, putting the track on the international map.”

Fort Erie Race Track

Cowan was instrumental in moving the race to a weekday with an evening post time to attract an after-work crowd. However, since 2020, the race is held several weeks later than it used to because the King's Plate is held later in the summer and thus post time is in the afternoon.

“What has gone over really well too is the switch to Tuesday for the race rather than the traditional Sunday. Fort Erie, with its landscaping, flower beds and manicured lawns looks just as nice as Saratoga. We've always been very proud of how we presented our product.”

The 1 3/16 mile Prince of Wales, run on a traditional dirt track, has seven entries for this year's race including the Plate winner, Mansetti, owned by Al and Bill Ulwelling of Elk River, Minnesota. Trained by Kevin Attard, Mansetti led most of the way to win the Plate on the Woodbine Tapeta surface.

The son of Collected, with young rider Pietro Moran back on board, figures to get a bit more heat on the pace is Ashley's Archer gets to play his game. A half brother to 2014 Wales winner Coltimus Prime, Ashley's Archer runs his best races on or near the pace and he has run well on the dirt. Patrick Husbands will ride the Mark Casse trainee who is owned by Gary Barber and Archer Racing LLC.

Should Mansetti get softened up his main competition figures to come from Scorching, who was fourth in the Plate and Faber, a stablemate of Mansetti, who was sixth in the Plate.

Since Woodbine installed an all weather surface in 2006, just two Plate winners have won the Prince of Wales – Wonder Gadot in 2018 and Mighty Heart in 2018.

Twelve horses have won the Canadian Triple Crown with the last being Wando in 2003.

Post time for the Prince of Wales is 5:35 p.m. Tuesday.