United Way Turf Races Day At Woodbine

On Wednesday evening, I was part of the AM680/Down The Stretch relay team participating in the United Way Turf Races Day at Woodbine Racetrack.

The day featured seven races held on Woodbine's famous turf course, including a fantastic 1 1/2 mile run won by Woodbine's President and COO, Nick Eaves. Other races included 100M and 200M sprints, with the feature race being a 200M relay pitting ten teams against Woodbine jockeys Emma-Jayne Wilson, Corey Fraser, Eurico Rosa Da Silva and Anthony Stephen.



The high-octane AM680/Down The Stretch team was comprised of Peter Gross, Eva Fragiskatos and College of Sport Media student Leigh Ellis.



The starting gate was positioned 200 metres from the finish line and from Lane 2, our team would run 50 metres and then pass the baton at designated exchange points. Eva took the first leg, bursting out of the starting gate, showing the solid speed and stamina of a soccer player as she chased leaders Corey Fraser and a very fast officer from Metro's 23 Division.

With a careful handoff to Gross, the gap to the front-runners shortened, as the sports media mogul churned his legs in pursuit of Emma-Jayne Wilson. As Gross prepared to hand off the baton to me, I took a quick peak and could see that Eurico Rosa Da Silva was already sprinting in vain trying to catch up to Metro's finest in a bizarre reverse police chase.



Four other teams had already passed the baton and there was much ground to make up if we were to hit the board. As I attempted to channel the speed of Secretariat's last career race, I found a new appreciation for the power of the horses that normally run this course, while simultaneously leaving our closer, Leigh, with much ground to make up as I passed the baton and watched the Aussie start his run.



With less than 25 metres to the finish, Leigh had closed into fourth place and was chasing the third place team from Direct Energy in the dash to the wire. The scorching hot sun was not bothering Lee one bit as he sped along the rail in hot pursuit. With the crowd roaring in appreciation, the anchor leg runners thundered under the wire, with the officers from 23 Division in first just edging out a brilliant sprint from Anthony Stephen. In a photo finish, Team AM680/Down The Stretch were controversially denied the show position.

Despite not hitting the board, all four team members carried themselves well and can be proud of their effort. I would like to thank all my friends who supported me for this brilliant fundraiser and encourage everyone to visit the United Way website and donate to this organization that does so much for the city of Toronto.