Historic Fort Erie Racetrack is known for being the launching pad for the great Northern Dancer’s racing career and Benburb’s shocking upset of 1-9 favorite Aydeed in the 1992 Prince of Wales Stakes, among many other things. Fort Erie launches its 127th season on Tuesday with an excellent nine-race card with 78 horses entered. Two of the races are five-furlong turf dashes and the other seven are dirt sprints. Racing will be conducted on Tuesdays until Mondays are added June 24. The popular Father’s Day card on June 16 is among four Sunday cards during the 40-day meet, which concludes Oct. 22. Post time is 4:30 p.m. Eastern to begin the meet. As usual, the highlight of the season is Prince of Wales Day on Sept. 10. The $400,000 Prince of Wales over 1 3/16 miles on the main track is the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, and comes between between the Aug. 17 King’s Plate and the Sept. 29 Breeders’, both at Woodbine. The Prince of Wales card includes a pair of $100,000 Ontario-sired sprint stakes for 3-year-olds, the Lake Erie and the Rondeau Bay for fillies, plus the $30,000 Le Cinquieme Essai Cup and the $30,000 Molson Cup. There are two new $30,000 races scheduled for June 16, the Longrun Thoroughbred Retirement Stakes and the Longrun Thoroughbred After Care Stakes. The popular Puss n Boots Cup and the Horsemen’s Luminary Cup, two more $30,000 events, go Sept. 2. The co-featured opening-day contests are the $30,000 Summer Solstice Cup and the $30,000 Sprint Into Summer Cup. A notable new trainer on the scene is Juan Pablo Silva, who sends out five live runners on Tuesday with Rosario Montanez named to ride all of them. Woodbine’s “Race and Stay” program is expected to impact field size at Fort Erie once again. Woodbine recently put out a release outlining the policy: “Due to the short Thoroughbred horse supply at Woodbine in 2024, any horse that leaves Woodbine to race at Fort Erie will not be eligible to stable at Woodbine for the remainder of the Fort Erie meet. These horses will be permitted to return to Woodbine after the completion of the Fort Erie meet in mid-October. This program does not apply to horses shipping out for any stakes race.” On March 1, 2023, the Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium filed a grievance with the Canadian Trade Commission regarding what they described as “predatory business practices” from Woodbine. The complaint also included the shifting of the dates of the Triple Crown races, which were moved down the calendar a few years ago while pushing the Prince of Wales out of the lucrative summer tourism season. The matter has yet to be addressed. “We at Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium cannot comment on matters that are under the consideration of going before Federal legal tribunals,” said Jim Thibert, the CEO of Fort Erie.