Monday Morning Message with Jason Beem for Dec. 15, 2025

Jason discusses some of the weekend cancellations and Woodbine wrapping up their season. 

A good Monday morning to you all. I hope the weather is a little kinder to everyone this week than it was last week. I didn’t even know we were having floods back home in Seattle until I heard from a friend asking if my family was affected. But I know snow forced a few cancellations at Turfway and Aqueduct, which is obviously tough for everyone. 

This weekend also brought down the curtain on Woodbine’s spring/summer/fall meeting. Even though there are year-round tracks, the two meets that always seem like the longest to me are Horseshoe Indianapolis and Woodbine. So often the tracks that start in the spring wrap up around Labor Day, but these two spots both go well into the fall, and both are wonderful meets. They just seem like they go on for a long time! 

With the news of Hastings Race Course shuttering racing last week, Woodbine now stands at the top of just a handful of Thoroughbred racetracks in Canada – the two Century tracks out in Alberta, Assiniboia Downs in Manitoba, Fort Erie in Ontario, and Woodbine. For as long as I’ve been paying attention to racing, Woodbine has always been the standard for Canadian racing, and having gone there a couple of times, it’s a wonderful place to take in the races. 

There are many people who think contraction of racing tracks is necessary in order for the product to remain somewhat competitive in the gambling landscape. And while there might be a slight uptick for a couple of tracks that might see horses from Hastings move there, I don’t think that blip lasts very long. Emerald Downs saw an uptick last year from Pleasanton and Northern California shuttering, but I think we’ll know more this year and next whether or not that led to any real jolt for that circuit. 

But do those little jolts make up for the loss of racing in major markets like Vancouver, San Francisco, and many more that have seen their live racing product go away? 

I often think of my time coming up in the game at Portland Meadows, which in the grand scheme of U.S. racing, was very near the bottom. Most races were run for around $3,800 to $4,500 purses, and the stock was certainly not all that fast. 

But it was a place for people in the Northwest to ply their trade and make memories, and even some money. It was a place for me personally to improve my craft and try to get better and prepare myself for opportunities that lay ahead. 

The list of jockeys and trainers from tracks like Portland Meadows, Suffolk Downs, Hastings, Golden Gate, Bay Meadows, that went on to have big national successes isn’t a short list. When we lose live racing in these areas, I think you also lose out on potential talent and people who want to be involved or invest in the game in some way. 

There are some very cool tracks and a lot of neat history in Canadian racing, and hopefully Woodbine has a long and fruitful future. But I think that job is tougher with racing now gone in the biggest city on the west coast of Canada. I suppose I’ve been thinking about the Hastings closure more than other tracks that have closed lately just because it literally hit so much closer to home. 

I root for every track to succeed, so when one goes away, it feels like a loss to us all. I know there will be more to follow. I just hope we fight harder to delay or prevent it by actually growing our game. Let’s take some chances, not be scared. 

“It’s better to burn out, than to fade away.” I think Neil Young said that.  He’s right. 

Have a great week everyone.