Screenshot: Incident on October 19, 2023 from ElementsCasinoSurrey.com
- Last week, Surrey’s Fraser Downs Racetrack announced its immediate closure.
- The move follows a wider trend of waning public support for horse racing, plummeting revenues, and increased knowledge around animal sentience and well-being.
- The Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) welcomed the decision by the City of Survey to terminate the racecourse’s lease, and called for the City of Vancouver to follow suit with Hastings Racecourse.
- A recent VHS report shared with the City of Vancouver in June outlines persistent animal welfare concerns and the long-term decline in attendance, revenue, and race days at Vancouver’s Hastings racecourse. The report recommends ending horse racing at Hastings Parks when the current Operating Agreement expires in 2026.
Read media coverage on the racetrack’s closure and the VHS’s response below.
CTV News Vancouver
“The Fraser Downs Racetrack announced there would be no more horse racing ‘effective immediately’ after the City of Surrey, which owns the land, decided to terminate its lease.”
“The Cloverdale Fairgrounds track is one of two in B.C. and the only one that hosts standardbred harness racing.”
CityNews Vancouver
“The Vancouver Humane Society welcoming the city’s decision, calling horse racing ‘outdated’ and ‘harmful’ entertainment.”
“‘While the closure at Fraser Downs marks an end to racing at that site, it is emblematic of a wider, long-overdue shift away from horse racing,’ the society’s campaign director, Emily Pickett, said in a statement.”
“‘Horse racing inherently subjects horses to pressure and danger, debilitating injuries, early physical decline, and at times fatal outcomes.'”