A piece of Squamish's history takes to the turf this Saturday (Feb. 26) in Surrey.
The Pat Brennan Memorial harness race is into its 23rd year at Fraser Downs. It was named after Pat Brennan, a former Squamish mayor how had a love for harness racing.
"Pat was one of the instrumental people who revived standardbred racing in the Lower Mainland," said Dan Jukich. "The sport kind of disappeared for a while in the '70s until it was revived by the Keelings and the Brennans."
Pat Brennan had held his own harness races called Smokey Downs in Squamish on his property at the end of Judd Road."It was only once a year," said Kathleen Brennan, his daughter. "It was a blast. It was like a big carnival."
Eventually, standardbred harness racing started up again at Fraser Downs (then called Cloverdale Raceway) in 1976. Harness racing doesn't interfere with the Thoroughbred racing season, which goes from April to October.
"It hit hard times for awhile," Jukich said. "It's just turning a corner now."People are starting to understand what it's about."
Horses have to be nominated to the memorial race. The horses have to be three or four years old, B.C. bred, sired and owned, and they have to be non-winners of $25,000 lifetime up to and including Nov. 30 2004.
The winning purse is $30,000, 50 per cent of which goes to the first place horse's owner.
The Mountain Retreat Hotel and Suites is running two buses to Fraser Downs on the day of the race. The hotel offers the tour to hotel patrons and tourists normally, but in this case it's a little different.
The bus leaves at approximately 10:30 a.m. Post time is 1:15 p.m. for the race. The bus returns to Squamish at 4:30 p.m. and the cost for the return trip is $64. Call the hotel (604-815-0883) for more information.
