ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Turf racing will be in flux during the 2025 Woodbine meet, which kicks off Saturday with an all-Tapeta card headed by the $125,000 Star Shoot Stakes. The 128-day meet is scheduled to conclude Dec. 14. Racing will be conducted on weekends until mid-May, when Fridays are added. Twilight Thursday racing commences in late May. Work on the revitalization of the main turf course began last fall with the reinforcement of the tunnel that leads to the main track. A small section of the course was removed, an area that will be resodded when weather permits. Turf racing is scheduled to begin, as usual, later in the spring, but the main turf will be restricted to six- and 6 1/2-furlong sprints until mid to late June. The main turf will close immediately following King’s Plate weekend for further resodding on the backstretch, which is the oldest portion of the course. Turf racing will continue on the inner course. “We’re pretty confident that a year from then in late August [2026], we’ll be back running on it,” predicted Woodbine’s vice president of racing, Tim Lawson, who also said the harsh winter was somewhat problematic to the project. “The weather has not been favorable, but we believe we’re still in a good position to start turf racing as scheduled,” Lawson said. “The priority is getting the stakes under way. We’ve got the Royal North scheduled to kick off the stakes season May 31, and we’re confident that we’ll get there.” :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. The 166th running of the King’s Plate headlines the meet. The $1 million Tapeta event, the opening leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, goes Aug. 16 on a card that also includes the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor, a new Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In event. The middle Triple Crown race, the $400,000 Prince of Wales, is on dirt Sept. 9 at Fort Erie. The $400,000 Breeders’ completes the series and will be contested over Woodbine’s inner turf Sept. 28. “We got news over the off-season that the [E.P. Taylor] was going to be added to the Breeders’ Cup program,” Lawson said. “We’re really excited about that. We put it on Plate Day to have the ability to run it on the [main] turf before we shut it down for the big renovation. Next year, it will go back to its previous spot.” Back at its traditional distance of 1 1/2 miles, the $750,000 Canadian International is scheduled for Oct. 4. The historic race, won by the great Secretariat in 1973, was not run in 2024, 2022, and 2020. “We’re going to run it around three turns on the inner turf, which should be fun to watch,” Lawson said. “If we chose not to run it, it would lose its status as a Grade 1 race. The marathon turf distance can be a challenging category, but the [International] is one of Woodbine’s most storied races. There was an appetite to keep it around, and we’re happy to bring it back.” The inner turf will be in full use for Turf Champions Day on Sept. 13, when a trio of Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In qualifiers will be staged, headed by the $1 million Woodbine Mile. The Summer and Natalma, both $500,000 races for 2-year-olds, round out the major turf races that day. “The most viable option for this year was to keep the races in their traditional time slot and run them on the inner turf,” Lawson said. “They will go back to the outer turf next year when the work is complete.” Woodbine will use the inner course more judiciously than usual in the fall, according to Lawson. “We’re going to need to be more strategic as to how we use the inner turf,” Lawson said. “We obviously don’t want to chew it up too much. We need to be careful and ensure that it’s safe.” The $500,000 Woodbine Oaks will be held July 20. The Oaks is the first leg of the Canadian Triple Tiara, a series for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies, followed by the $250,000 Bison City on Aug. 9 and $250,000 Wonder Where on Sept. 6. The Canada Day Racing Festival goes June 28. The holiday card features five stakes, including the Grade 2 Nassau and Grade 2 Highlander Stakes. :: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!  There are 91 stakes on the Woodbine schedule, 39 of which are graded. Woodbine Entertainment and the HBPA of Ontario recently hammered out a two-year deal that boosts purses by $5.7 million. The agreement commits $64.7 million to purses in 2025 and $65 million in 2026, both with 128-day meets. “Reaching an agreement allows our horsepeople to plan and move forward,” HBPA president Sue Leslie said. “The 128 racing days and the purse increase provide needed stability for our members, and while there is always more work to be done, we believe that this is a necessary and positive step forward for racing in Ontario.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.