The  OBJECT of the Society shall be to encourage and ensure co-operative effort in all matters pertaining to the production and improvement of the Standardbred Horse in the Province of Alberta, and to co-operate with the Associations and Societies of other Provinces in the Dominion of Canada and States of the United States of America/or other Associations in other Countries..
The Alberta Standardbred Horse Association (ASHA) was formed to represent and protect the best interests of Standardbred industry participants and bring about a closer, more understanding relationship among members, racetracks, racing associations, governing bodies and the public.
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NEWS & UPDATES for ALBERTA

ASHA

CENTURY DOWNS RACETRACK AND CASINO STALL  APPLICATION​ 

Click the button below for the 2022 Century Downs Racetrack and Casino Stall Application . DUE NO LATER THAN FEBRUARY 2nd!
Please read the conditions , acknowledged by your signature.

CHECK WITH JEFF MCLEOD OR JOE GRAY TO CONFIRM STALLS BEFORE SHIPPING  
Race Office: raceoffice@cnty.com
Jeff McLeod: jeff.mcleod@cnty.com
Joe Gray: joseph.gray@cnty.com
​Josh Murphy: josh.murphy@cnty.com

REVISED RACE CALENDAR

As per the notice from HRA of January 18, the race calendar is as follows:

MESSAGE FROM CENTURY

The following has been confirmed by Century Management
(Paul Ryneveld, Joe Gray, Allen Goodsell)
Stall applications for Century Downs will be out January 20th, TODAY.
No shavings cost for February for Mile and Downs. Shavings will be charged effective March 1 moving forward. Nobody will receive stalls if they are not caught up on their shavings or entered into a payment agreement with Century through the Horsemen's Bookkeeper.

MARES BONUS OF 2021

Attention breeders of Alberta Standardbred Mares! Your Mares Bonus cheques are ON SCHEDULE and will be ready for mail out for the first week of February.

UPDATED VACCINATION PROTOCOL (January 18, 2022)
2022 Race Meet at Century Downs
ALL BREEDS (this includes all horses entering a Century Property)

Please note the following protocols have been UPDATED and will be in effect on move into Century Downs for 2022 spring race meet:
 
1. New Covid 19 vaccination protocol - Century Downs backstretch will now be under the Restrictions Exemptions Program. All people that come onto the property must:
  •  Provide proof of full vaccination (two doses) at least 14 days prior to coming onto the property. Proof of vaccination is verified by submitting your COVID-19 vaccine record with QR code, or
  • Proof of a privately paid negative PCR or rapid test every 72 hours
 
2. New Equine Vaccination protocol - Your horses must have proof of a negative Coggins test as well as being vaccinated at least 14 days prior to coming onto the Century Downs property. Vaccinations required are Flu/Rhino
 
Strangles vaccine is now voluntary.
 
3. Delinquent Environmental Accounts – Anyone requiring stalls will have their stall applications denied if they still owe on previous environmental fees.  The only exception is those who have approved signed agreements for repayment with the bookkeeper.

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Additional note from Dr. Jordan Cook:
"As I mentioned I will be coming up this weekend in order to get everybody’s first booster of the flu/ rhino vaccines in. Those of you that would like to go ahead with Strangles vaccine please let me know so I can make sure I bring enough. The strangles vaccine is now VOLUNTARY.
PLEASE send myself or Colleen a list of horses in your care that require vaccination so I can ensure I have enough vaccines and don’t miss anyone.
This includes trainers stabled at farms, I will arrange to get there as soon as I can or will vaccinate after the races Saturday those horses that shipped in.
If your horse has not received the flu/rhino vaccine in the past 12 months they will require a booster in 3-4 weeks."

Track on 2 Early Update

A few people have asked about Track on 2 so I will just put this out and will write a more complete update in late February/early March.

Track on 2 is preparing for the opening of their race season with their first date scheduled for Sunday July 3rd. We will also see significant purse increases, more than 20% across the board, for our B meet dates. Other things to look forward to will be a Conditioned Claimer series and live events after racing.

Fred Gillis and I will be sitting down with the Track on 2 team consisting of Kurt, Kyla, Jason, Ross and Jim in early February. I will send out an update once all details have been finalized. We are hopeful of a few more new events and a great overall meet!

Sincerely
Don McDougall

January 2022 Update​

The calendar has turned to 2022 thankfully, I am sure we can all find a few things we enjoyed during 2021 but a few more that were painful haha. The weather has improved and hopefully along with it the outlook of the industry. I apologize that I have not been able to make a backstretch meeting work at Century Mile, but with the recent change in restrictions from the government and a few personal issues I decided that a written update worked best.
 
I really don’t need to say it, but the last couple months of 2021 were a struggle. Between some brutally cold weather, a very strong Equine virus that we have not seen in Alberta for many years and card cancellations the industry was put to the test yet again. Thankfully it warmed up enough to get a good card of racing in on January 2nd and finish off the 2021 stakes season. There were some excellent performances and the card in general was bet well. The continued cold kept live attendance down, but streams and HPI were warm, and the handle was extremely close to a record for either Century track. We were also happy to be able to initiate the 2022 purse increases early to help horsemen/women and owners start the recovery process.
 
We now are well into January and thankfully the Chinook winds have given us some much-needed relief. I even saw a trainer in the winner’s circle yesterday WITHOUT a jacket, but that might have been a crazy Manitoban haha. We all know about the struggles that have been dealt with, but let’s focus the rest of this update on the positives:
 
  1. Purse increases. Both overnight and stakes purses for 2022 have seen a much-needed increase. Overnights are up by over 20 percent from mid 2021, and stakes purses are back to the highest level in quite a few years with a total pool of just under $1.75M dollars
  2. A five-year agreement between all breeds on purse splits. We do not need to fight and negotiate until 2027, the next 5 years have been agreed to and signed off on. It will allow for more increases yearly and allow Alberta to race for purses that should be second only to Mohawk by 2024.
  3. An almost completed 5-year race dates calendar which will have blocks of times at each track and will allow our Century Mile meet to be extended until almost the end of May starting in 2023. We hope to have that completed in the coming weeks
  4. The return of Sugar Doyle! Not only is Sugar a great race caller but working with the Western Fair team he helped grow revenues back to an excellent level. He is bringing those skills back to Alberta and his connections will help grow our viewing audience and I am sure handle. Add to that Sugar’s outgoing personality and we now have an excellent combination between Sugar and Murray Slough. We can expect great things in 2022 and the hopeful return of pre-game shows and race coverage
  5. The hiring of Jeff McLeod as the new Race Secretary for Standardbreds. Jeff is an ex-trainer and has a very good understanding of our business. Winter racing is always a struggle to put together competitive cards with a limited horse population, but we are hopeful that this hire will help horsemen get their horses raced
  6. A well-known track consultant, Ron Grift, has been hired on a contract basis and will help Century Mile finish off the current meet as well as set up Century Downs for the start of our 2022 meet. There are quite a few changes projected for the CD track in 2022, and he will oversee them to make sure they are successfully implemented
  7. The continuation of the horse population increase incentives. These will be announced as they are developed with the aim of increasing both the racehorse and broodmare population
 
These are some of the key elements to aiding in the recovery of Alberta racing starting in 2022. It will be a team effort between ASHA, HRA and of course the Century Group who have made some strong recent hires and financial commitments to Alberta racing industry. We all understand that there are still many issues that need to be worked on, we in no way believe these alone will make the industry perfect. We do however feel it is a strong step in the right direction and has the potential to create some positive momentum for the Standardbred race industry in Alberta.
 
The ASHA board members have put in a lot of work during trying times in the past year and I want to take a minute to thank them for their efforts. We do have an AGM coming up in April and as always there are Board of Directors positions to be elected. I have one more year left on my term as President before making my decision on whether to run again in 2023. Anyone with an interest in letting their name stand for a Board position can contact Fred Gillis at any point. We will also be creating a section on our ASHA website for anyone interested in running to write a short Bio to support and announce their candidacy. These bios will also be posted on our ASHA Industry Updates Facebook page. There is also always the option to nominate people from the floor on the day of the AGM for those who need extra time to think about running for a position.
 
I am personally looking forward to this hopeful year of recovery and continuing to pray that the Covid variants remain under control and we get to have many fun events live at the track. Best wishes to all for a safe, happy and successful 2022 Racing season!
 
Sincerely,
Don McDougall
President of the Alberta Standardbred Horse Association

~~ATTENTION HORSEMEN!!~~

Century Mile has announced the two following statements;

Starting January 15th, 2021, you must have a mask on to enter the grounds and due to so much non compliance, it must be properly worn at all times. Violators of this rule will be subject to a fine.
Starting Monday January 17th, you must have your 2022 HRA license to have access to the grounds, NO EXCEPTIONS!

from
​HORSE RACING ALBERTA

ATTENTION: Race Day Changes

News Stories From Standardbred Canada

Respiratory Viruses Webinar Video Available

An overview of respiratory viruses, the effect of these on racehorses’ health, vaccination and practical biosecurity were some of the key topics discussed during the webinar, Key Learnings from Alberta and How Respiratory Viruses Affect Your Racehorses’ Health, presented by Standardbred Canada (SC) on Tuesday evening....read on

Free & Discounted Courses For Members

Standardbred Canada (SC) members can take advantage of a 15 per cent discount for Equine Guelph’s winter short courses offered on the Horse Portal and a limited number of free offerings are available for three of the online courses....read on

COURSES
from the University of Guelph

Racehorse Respiratory Health Course

Register for the Racehorse Respiratory Health online short course! Runs Jan 24 – Feb 4. Reduce the risk of respiratory issues in your barn and improve your horses’ performance on the track. Special 15% discount for HRA members. Register now at TheHorsePortal.ca/HRA 
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Alberta Challenge of Champions ABSS SUPER FINALS

The OFFICIAL Stakes Schedule and Calendar

Below are the OFFICIAL  Stakes Schedule and Calendar respectively.
​PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THE SCHEDULE COULD CHANGE DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND THE CONTROL OF ASHA

2022 Stakes Schedule

2022 Race Calendar

Looking for help or work?

Announcing EquineJobTrack.ca – your source for horse industry jobs across Canada!  
​Equine Guelph launches free employment service. Employers, post your jobs here so Equine JobTrack can help serve the horse racing industry in Alberta.  ​

​HRA HOURS of OPERATION 

ATTENTION: As a reminder, in February 2020 we received notice from HRA that in lieu of WCB, everyone participating in the harness horse racing industry in Alberta MUST have their Standardbred Canada license and ASHA membership in order to have proper coverage as mandated by Century Casinos.
Horse Racing Alberta (HRA) is requesting that you go ONLINE to renew your license(s), as there is limited access to the backstretch.
​
CENTURY MILE:
PO BOX 1376, 
NISKU, AB, 
T9E 7M0
​PH. (587) 416-5455
FAX: (587) 416-5460 
EMAIL: 
​dwaddington@thehorses.com ​
Century MILE HRA hours
CENTURY DOWNS:
PH. (587) 349-7777 Ext: 7800 FAX: (587) 349-7794 
​EMAIL: bgerlitz@thehorses.com 

All information can be located here:
For a list of OTB's in Southern Alberta, click this link ...HERE

The Horse Portal

SPECIAL 15% DISCOUNT FOR HRA MEMBERS 

Register at: TheHorsePortal.ca/HRA 

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