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Windsor Raceway opened in 1965, as a winter racing venue, hoping the good people of Detroit would take a ride over the Ambassador Bridge, while the local tracks were dark. It had a five eights mile tartan track, that was later replaced with a banked oval. The grandstand was a multi floor design, containing both the grandstand and the clubhouse on the upper floor. It was a good sized structure for a harness track, total capacity was 8,200. The grandstand sat 4,600, while the clubhouse held 1,400, with an additional 300 seats in the dining room. there was parking for 4,600 cars and stables for 850 horses.

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In 1975, hours before a Sunday night card a fire was discovered in a storage area, unable to be contained, the grandstand was destroyed. The facility was rebuilt and racing continued, in 1999 Windsor Raceway, became the first track in Ontario to install slots. This made Windsor more profitable than ever, but would be it's downfall.

The racing gods, givith and the racing gods takith away. In 2012 the racing commission ordered the slots removed from Windsor Raceway, saying it was to close to a local stand alone casino. Not being able to survive with just harness racing, the track called it quits. The track was demolished in 2015, but not before someone took one of the excavators for a joyride.

I do have a few memories of Windsor Raceway, I did make it there in 2012. As I entered the track I was frantic to find a program, no sellers in sight. I asked another fan and they pointed to a box on the grandstand floor. They called it a Kiosk, I called it a copy machine in a painted box. Now the best part, it only took Canadian quarters, I just came over the borders, I didn't have any Canadian quarters. After running around for a while, I got my quarters, post time was getting close as I'm putting my precious quarters in the box, now all I hear is KA-Chunk, KA-Chunk as it's putting my program together> did get to read it and put my bet in, but little wonder why this place went under. On a happier note the highest win ticket I ever cashed was from Winsor Downs. One night on my ADW site, I some how stumbled on the eight horse in this race at odds of 99-1. It was one of those cavalry charge finishes, five horses were in the photo, when the picture was printed to eight horse had a nose in front and posted a $200 plus mutual. Thank you Windsor Raceway!