Five weeks from tomorrow, May 29, Bangor Raceway will open its 26-date extended race meet, but a major concern remains about the availability of horses.

There are presently 144 horses stabled in the Bangor barns, almost enough for the two-day opening weekend, but not enough to race three days each week as scheduled. With the first two qualifying sessions scheduled for 10 a.m. May 26 and 11:30 a.m. May 29, there shouldn’t be a problem with the opening weekend racing program.

But there is a new variable to stir into the mix of horses this year – a large contingency of Canadian stock from across the border in New Brunswick.

Canadian horses racing at Bangor’s annual extended meet is nothing new, but some of the names being added to the Canadian regulars this year are new. Canadian owners and drivers don’t come to Bangor with horses that are not ready to race – bet on that!

According to Wendell Tilley, stall manager at Bangor, the following Canadians have tended horse-stall applications (these numbers are for horse stall only and do not include tack stalls, etc.): Donald Bishop, 7; Heath Campbell, 10; Douglas Beckwith, 8; Bernard Charlton, 6; Mark Grant, 9; Jody Hennessey, 14; Clayton and Don Dickison, 11; Dean Mills, 6; and Dean Bustard, 6.

One of the reasons horsemen are leaving the Maritimes and moving to Bangor is because Exhibition Park Raceway, a half-mile track in the center of Saint John, New Brunswick, closes on June 9 and does not reopen until Aug. 28, according to Herman Renaud, race secretary at EPR.

Renaud used to drive the Maine circuit until about 10 years ago, and lived in Lewiston, before moving back to his native Canada.

Racing moves to Fredericton Raceway for the summer months after EPR closes, and Fredericton has less stable space than EPR, so some horsemen make the trek to Bangor, according to Renaud.

Three Maritime tracks share intertracking (live racing simulcasts) and they operate with one common wagering pool. The odds are calculated at the host track’s facility before a race and each track, whether live or simulcast, flashed and then flashed on all three track scoreboards so all will operate under the same payoff odds.

“It helps each track and everyone’s race meet,” Renaud said. EPR has, however, shared one common problem experienced by every other cold weather racing tracks – horse supply. “It’s been grim since we opened in January,” Renaud said, “but now that the weather is getting better, the horse supply here is picking up,” he said.

PACING BITS – Bass Park needs a cosmetic facelift before the extended meet begins on May 29 and they need your heness Horsemen’s Association is sponsoring a clean-up, paint-up, fix-up weekend at Bangor Raceway on Saturday and Sunday, according to Harold Billings, DEHHA president. “The city is supplying the paint and brushes, nails and lumber to fix and paint the fences and barns, We are supplying the muscle,” Billings said.

DEHHA needs volunteers to help complete the project. If you have a few free hours to donate, the action begins at 10 a.m. both days. It’s an opportunity to collectively indicate to the city of Bangor how much the future of harness racing at the Bass Park facility means to racing fans. This project does not exclude anyone, even city councilors and local city government officials are invited to put on their painter overalls and “grab a brush.”

On Sunday afternoon, the DEHHA will have a (free of charge) barbeque in the grandstand area for volunteer painters and workers. Join us, we need your support.Directors of the DEHHA will be there to give you work directions.

THE MAINE STATE Harness Racing Commission’s meeting scheduled for Wednesday has been canceled. The MSHRC had indicated it would render a decision at this meeting concerning the expansion of the Lasix program to include administering Lasix to horses by trainers with the certification of a veterinarian. The meeting has been rescheduled for 9:30 a.m. on May 19 at the Augusta Civic Center.