There's something about Fort Erie Race Track's traditional end of season race, known locally as the Tour de Fort, that horsepeople just find particularly alluring.
"This one is special, for sure," said Michael Bellissimo after his horse, Nonna's Little Boy, won the two-mile-long endurance battle to close out the 2024 season in Fort Erie on Tuesday evening. After a few lacklustre performances earlier in the year, Bellissimo talked with his trainer, Willy Armata, about what to do with the stubborn horse, who didn't seem to want to sprint in short races.
"The last two races, he really disappointed me. He took the lead after the race was over, when it didn't count," recalled Armata. "So when Michael said to me, what are we gonna do with this horse, I told him, in 11 days we are going in the Tour de Fort, and we took that shot and it worked."
Carding a marathon race to end the meet has long been a custom at racetracks across North America, but Fort Erie is one of the few to keep the tradition going with its Tour de Fort, which features two full laps around the historic border oval.
"It's a long distance, so we gotta just relax for that first lap," said winning jockey Leo Salles. "After that, the plan was to just avoid the traffic, and we did that and won the race."
Salles picked up a hat trick of wins on closing day, capping off an incredible season for the jockey, who earned the nickname Longshot Leo after a stunning win earlier in the year where he rode Gambler's Pose to victory at 102-1 odds. According to Equibase, it was the biggest longshot win of the year for any horse in North America, with a whopping $207.20 payout on a $2 wager.
Elsewhere on the wagering side of things, Fort Erie Race Track closed out the season with $42.5 million in total wagering, the second highest in Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium history, topped only by the previous year's $46 million banner season. While off-track wagering dipped slightly, on-track wagering held steady at $1.93 million.
Fort Erie Race Track will reopen on May 27, 2025 for its 128th season of live thoroughbred racing, and will run through to Oct. 21.
All the usual special events will return, including the Wiener Dog Races, the Corgi & Basset Hound Races, Track-O-Lantern, and the track's signature event, the 90th running of the Prince of Wales Stakes.
For more information about the upcoming season, visit www.forterieracing.com
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