Blockade briefly stops Pride Parade in downtown Winnipeg
A group of protesters briefly blocked the Winnipeg Pride Parade on Sunday.
The Pegasus World Cup will continue. It may even expand.
Planning is underway for the next Pegasus, now that the day headlined by Gulfstream Park playing host to one of the biggest-money races in North America is complete for another year. And one idea on the table is adding a West Coast element to Pegasus days, with 1/ST -- the group that owns and operates Gulfstream -- potentially looking to bring Santa Anita, another of its tracks in Southern California, into the mix.
"Stay tuned on that," said Belinda Stronach, the chairman and president of 1/ST. "It's coming."
There has now been six editions of the Pegasus, a race day that was met with skepticism when plans for it were first revealed in the mid-2010s. The format has changed almost annually; the purse structure for the Pegasus World Cup no longer requires owners to put up $1 million apiece for a spot in the starting gate for what was, at its birth, the world's richest race at as much as $16 million.
Saturday's headline race won by Life Is Good featured a $3 million purse, much smaller than the earlier Pegasus runnings but still quite significant considering only two Breeders' Cup races last year offered bigger purses at a U.S. track.
A Pegasus turf race was eventually added, a second turf race was added this year, and the last two versions of Pegasus day -- when Gulfstream marries racing with a celebrity vibe, some tickets going for upward of $1,000 just to get into the track -- have been pulled off during a pandemic.
Stronach and her group are always looking for the next big thing. And growth -- which she's sought for some time when discussing the Pegasus brand -- might not be far off.
"We're going to continue to do Pegasus," Stronach said. "We're going to continue to innovate around the platform. But we have some amazing properties and amazing tracks. Let's curate our racing content in a way that Gulfstream Park isn't running over Santa Anita, curate it properly, build some interesting themes around the East Coast and West Coast."
And part of that might include changing the way some people bet.
"Just make it fun and exciting," she said.
Racing has had the same sorts of wagers forever -- win, place, show, exacta, trifecta and the like. Not every visitor to a track understands how they work, and even fewer understand all the data that horseplayers pore over while handicapping a race.
But now, with Stronach's group working on developing high-tech info like never before, the sort that can churn out 50,000 data points from each horse during every race, even novice horseplayers may be able to play with an app and get a better understanding of what's happening. It's simple math: Get more people feeling comfortable betting, handle will rise, purses will rise and racing would see needed growth.
"One of the things we always ask ourselves is how do we get more eyeballs onto our sport, and that I think means simplification in terms of wagering," Stronach said. "The handicapping can be very intimidating. So, we're looking at simplification and we've made some strides there. ... It's not far off. It's not far off."
A group of protesters briefly blocked the Winnipeg Pride Parade on Sunday.
People around the world are observing National Cancer Survivor Day, an annual celebration held to honour patients who have been through the often difficult and traumatic experience of living with cancer.
Research shows that art experiences, whether as a maker or a beholder, transform our biology by rewiring our brains and triggering the release of neurochemicals, hormones and endorphins.
Ryan Reynolds this week unveiled arguably the most anticipated and sure-to-be coveted merchandise tied to his upcoming 'Deadpool' sequel: the movie’s novelty popcorn bucket.
A brief break during Wednesday's city council meeting in Saskatoon nearly cost the city dearly.
A motorcycle driver is facing charges after being caught on Highway 417 doing wheelies and weaving in and out of traffic, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says.
After his historic guilty verdict in his hush money case, Donald Trump attacked the U.S. criminal justice system, making unfounded claims of a "rigged" trial that echoed remarks from the Kremlin.
Al Riddell was going to go have a quiet Sunday afternoon coffee with his family when his dad asked if he had heard that Mike (Fluff) Cowan, C.T. Pan's caddie, had slipped during the fourth round of the RBC Canadian Open and that a fan had started carrying his bag for him.
Legislation restricting disruptive protests targeting B.C. schools came into effect Friday, with the province saying there have been 20 such incidents since last September.
Car 14 is a luxury passenger car that once made regular runs from London to Port Stanley starting in 1917.
A hefty donation by a renowned local activist to the University of Winnipeg has created what is believed to be the most comprehensive two-spirit archives in all of Canada.
Leanne Van Bergen discovered a skulk of 10 baby foxes, and two mothers, had made themselves at home on her property in Beausejour.
An 81-year-old Waterloo, Ont. woman thought she’d never ride a horse again after a brain bleed led to severe physical complications.
A CP24 camera caught the moment a driver frantically got out of her car as it was being dragged by a truck on Avenue Road Wednesday afternoon.
Prince Edward Island is celebrating its first-ever International Day of Potato on Thursday.
The president of Covered Bridge Chips in New Brunswick is hoping to have his factory rebuilt for late 2025 following a devastating fire last year.
Students and staff at Winnipeg’s Westwood Collegiate had a unique problem to solve this month; how do you lead ducks to water from the school’s courtyard when 12 of them can’t fly yet?
Debby Lorinczy remembers her father as an amazing person and as a man who also made an amazing discovery.