Hiawatha looking to build on 2024 success

by Matthew Lomon

For Jim Henderson, owner and operator of Hiawatha Horse Park, the start of a new harness racing season is an opportunity to build on the previous one.

The five-eighths-mile track will kick off its 2025 campaign on Saturday (May 3), with its first of 21 scheduled race dates – the same total as 2024.

Hiawatha’s incoming meet will run every Saturday through Sept. 20, with a standard 6:30 p.m. post time.

Ahead of his 35th campaign at the helm of the Sarnia, ON, oval, Henderson previews where things stand in advance of opening day as well as what to look forward to this year.

Horsepeople and Hiawatha staff have started to trickle in according to Henderson, who based on early interactions with members of both groups, said he feels optimistic leading up to the big day.

The head of Hiawatha is particularly eager for the return of the Ontario Sires Stakes program, which will be back twice with the OSS Grassroots Series (Aug. 17 and Sept. 7), and four times with the Prospect Series (July 6, July 27, Aug. 3, and Aug. 17) for up-and-coming horses.

“This program is very important for the industry,” Henderson said. “It really gives somebody that’s coming up a chance and a place to take their Grassroots horses or their Prospect horses, and hopefully, watch them improve and move up to the next stage.”

Hiawatha has long held a special place in OSS lore.

In 1989, 15 years after the program was established, Hiawatha, in just its second year of operation, became “Home of the fastest OSS mile ever.”

The time of 1:53.2 achieved by Mystery Fund and driver Bill Gale for recently passed trainer Bob McIntosh remains uncontested, and so too does Hiawatha’s role in one of the Series’ most memorable moments.

Last season, the Horse Park continued its proud tradition when it hosted the final stop of the OSS 50th Anniversary celebration tour — an 11-race card, highlighted by three $20,000 Grassroots divisions for 2-year-old filly trotters — on Sept. 5.

Also returning to Hiawatha in 2025 is the fan-favorite loonie/toonie nights. On the first Saturday of every month during the racing season (five total), programs and pop are $1 each and hot dogs are $2.

The first loonie/toonie day of the season lands on opening day, which happens to line up with the most popular day in North American thoroughbred racing, the Kentucky Derby, and routinely forms one of the busiest days on Hiawatha’s calendar.

“On Kentucky Derby Day, a lot of younger people show up as a group of 50 or 60,” Henderson said. “Young people from the local college are here all the time, but they get all dressed up and come every year for the Derby.”

With the annual influx of fresh faces, comes an opportunity to introduce new fans to Hiawatha’s harness racing product.

For Henderson, theme nights are no doubt an important part of the equation, but so too is using the 165-acre venue’s appeal as a universal entertainment and recreation center.

“We have beach volleyball, the driving range, motorcycle training course, fitness center, casino and live horse racing,” he said. “I think between it all, there’s more of a draw for people to come out.

“It’s quite the commitment, but our customers like it, and that’s what matters.”

How that increase in traffic translates to greater handle, and live handle specifically, is still a work in progress.

“Our problem a little bit with our live handle is that it [live racing coverage] is not being broadcast, and we’re not sending it out there with an alliance group,” Henderson said. “It’s just on the internet, so it is only broadcast there.

“Another thing that impacts us is we also show all the tracks — Gulfstream, Meadowlands, Woodbine, Mohawk — at the same time our product is on. We don’t just try to show our own. We show everything. So, if they bet $10,000 on Mohawk one night, $4,000 and $5,000 somewhere else, it takes away from our live product.”

Henderson added, however, that it’s a necessary trade-off.

“It’s something you have to give the customer,” he said. “You have to give the customer what they want; all the different products.”

Henderson and Co. were able to offset some of last year’s hallowed handle thanks to an infusion from bettors south of the border.

After Northville Downs, the last operational racetrack in the state of Michigan ceased its live harness racing product on Feb. 3, 2024, Hiawatha experienced a noticeable uptick in horseplayers hailing from the Wolverine State.

While it’s not a total fix to the track’s live handle hitch, Henderson said the number of American visitors to Hiawatha is “getting bigger every day.”

“Now that we have both bridges open, and as long as there’s not a big delay with trucks and stuff slowing things down, we really noticed the amount of people coming was a lot more,” Henderson said. “Delays really affected our overall with the bigger bettors. They’re not going to sit in line on the bridge for two hours to get here.”

As for any major changes coming to the facility in 2025, Henderson said there might be few minor upgrades here and there, but all the major additions were made before the 2024 season.

This included a new tote board, LED lighting, high-definition cameras, and a remodelling of the kitchen and paddock.

Although, Henderson did share what he hopes to see come to Hiawatha in the near future.

“I think we need to get back to having stabling at the facility,” Henderson said. “Horsepeople could come here and stable for the summer, maybe get back to two days a week, race for three or four months, and go from here to the next track, stable there, and develop more of a circuit type system.”

Henderson views the stabling solution as a means of cutting down costs for horsepeople, ensuring more horses are on-hand for race days, and re-emphasizing that down-home feel.

Hiawatha’s overseer also mentioned that his team has received several calls from Michigan horsepeople regarding stabling opportunities.

“They were deciding whether to go to Ohio, and some went to Ohio, but they were already heading back to Michigan,” he said. “Many of them said that their horses aren’t quite good enough to race in the big races, so they’re racing for $4,000 or $5,000 and by the time they drive from Saginaw all the way to Ohio and let somebody else train and stable their horses and pay the bills, it’s not a fun hobby anymore.”

Henderson said the idea to re-introduce stabling at Hiawatha came from Central Ontario Standardbred Association president and Canadian and U.S. Hall of Famer, Bill O’Donnell.

While no concrete plans or next steps in place, Henderson says Hiawatha is certainly capable of accommodating a potential large-scale move.

“At one time, we had 250 horses,” he said. “My paddock holds 140 horses, and there’s two barns with 100 stalls behind it. I could refurbish and open them back up again. It wouldn’t be too hard to do. We’d need new hot water tanks, some lighting and some general maintenance, but that’s it.

“We’d have to hire some more people to maintain the track weekly, which is a good thing too, because then you’d have more jobs, and more opportunities for people to work consistently.”

In the interim, Henderson and his team at Hiawatha remain focused on delivering yet another season to remember.

“We’re excited to get going again and show a good racing product,” he said. “The track looks very good, which we take pride in keeping to a high standard. The same goes for our facility.

“We enjoy what we do.”