Welcome Woodbine

Saturday afternoon will be a very important one in The Great White North as the McKenzie Brothers used to call it. Woodbine returns to Thoroughbred racing starting on Saturday. I think it is some of the finest racing on the entire continent. You get high-quality racing over two excellent racing surfaces (Woodbine's Polytrack is among the very best and the E.P. Taylor Turf Course ranks highly as well). The simulcast signal is tops as well. The presentation is always eye-catching, the analysts are extremely informative, and of course, you get the race calls of Dan Loiselle. I consider Dan one of the very best (if not THE very best) track announcers in all of North America.

The featured event on the Opening Day card is the aptly-named $100,000 Debut Stakes. The season will last 167 days in all, running until Closing Day, which is Sunday, December 4. The highlight event of the early part of the season will be the 152nd running of the Queen's Plate, the first jewel in the Canadian Triple Crown. The Queen's Plate is scheduled to be run on June 26. You might remember that the 2010 winner, Big Red Mike, was selected on this very blog. Woodbine also host the third leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the Breeders' Stakes, which is run at 1 1/2 miles on the E.P. Taylor Turf Course. The 2010 winner was Miami Deco, who until that race, had been a maiden. The Breeders' Stakes is scheduled for August 7.

Tune in again on Friday for more from They Are Off. For right now, I am Gone... GOODBYE!