The population of Richmond in 1909 was around 3,100, but on the first race day at the Minoru Park Race Track on Aug. 21 of that year, there were 7,000 spectators in the stands.

Richmond’s rich history of horse racing includes celebrity visits from Winston Churchill and Clark Gable, but it was locals from Richmond, Vancouver and surrounding communities that kept the then-farming community’s two premier racetracks bustling — and city coffers filling up.

The City of Richmond Archives has compiled a video that gives a glimpse into Richmond’s rich horse-racing history.

Archives intern Anouska Kirby made the video with input from Charan Gill, whose family bred and raced horses in the 1950s and 1960s.

Richmond had two race tracks — the Minoru Park Race Track, later named Brighouse Park Race Track, and Lansdowne Park Race Track. 

When it opened, technically the Minoru track was only allowed to have two seven-day racing sessions per year, but it appears the track was open more than just 14 days a year.

For a while, the Township of Richmond seemed to turn a blind eye to these extra racing days as the money they received from racing licences and extra tram fares proved to be lucrative to the city’s bottom line.

But this came to stop in 1914 after a 90-day meet was held at Minoru Park Race Track and they were slapped with a $500 fine.

“Previously, Richmond Council had been lenient on session lengths due to the revenue made from the races,” the video explains.  

Over the years, the calculation for how the township was compensated by the race tracks varied. For example, a track licence in 1925 was $7,500, according to the city archives. This is more than $131,000 in 2024 dollars.

The City of Richmond continues to profit from gambling as it receives 10 per cent of net profits from River Rock Casino, expected to be around $11 million in 2025.

Second track opens in 1924

After a lucrative first five years, Minoru Park Race Track closed in 1914 due to the war, and when it reopened in 1920, it was renamed Brighouse Park Race Track.

Given the limitations of racing days, however, the owners decided to open a second track — hence, Lansdowne Park Race Track was created in 1924, allowing four seven-day horse racing sessions per year.

The “heyday” of horse racing in Richmond was the 1930s despite the Great Depression — in fact, horse racing seemed to shield the city from some of the economic woes the rest of the world was experiencing.

Richmond was one of the few places on the west coast of North America where parimutuel betting was allowed.

“The combination of great tracks and legal parimutuel (betting) meant that for decades Richmond attracted some of the best known horsemen and spectators on the continent,” the video explains. “The business of horse racing was integral to the early economy and the agricultural composition of Richmond.”

But when the Second World War broke out in 1939, it hit Brighouse Track hard. Rationing meant that the extra 1.5 miles to Brighouse from Lansdowne was costly, and the track closed in 1941.

Gill family grew up at the track

Crowds continued to visit Lansdowne throughout the 1950s.

This was the time Charan Gill was growing up in Richmond, which she calls a “simpler time.” 

“As kids, you could play outside all day long,” she said. “Everyone fell in a ditch at least once.”

Many of her childhood memories centre around the family’s horse breeding and racing.

Gill’s father, known as “Cousin Gill” or “P.S. Gill,” first acquired horses from Taka Singh, a horse breeder and trainer who was in ill health.

Horse breeding and racing became an “all-consuming passion” for P.S. Gill, his daughter told the Richmond News, and a part of the entire Gill family’s life.

“That was my dad’s love — our lives revolved around the horses,” she said.

In fact, photos taken over the years at the “Winner’s Circle” with a winning Gill horse show the family growing up.

The Gill family first lived on Alexandra Road, where McDonald’s is located. Their house backed onto the Lansdowne Park Race Track, and her earliest memories were of walking the horses to the track and billeting jockeys who came from Cuba.

The family later moved to Lansdowne Road which was called the “League of Nations” as there were families from around the world living there.

Tram closure spells end of horse racing

Lansdowne was known as a superior track to Exhibition Park as it was a mile long and it was made of peat, clay and alluvial soil which provided a “bounce” and was less damaging to the horses, Gill explained.

But the closure of the Marpole-Steveston B.C. Electric tram that had brought horse-racing enthusiasts from Vancouver to Richmond right from its inception would prove to be the beginning of the end.

The opening of the Oak Street Bridge in 1957 gave some hope the sport could continue in Richmond, but this was short-lived.

In 1960, the owners decided to invest their money into Vancouver’s Exhibition Park, currently known as Hastings Park Race Track, ending horse racing in Richmond.

Lansdowne continued as a training track until 1973, but the land was eventually developed into the Lansdowne Shopping Centre, which opened in 1977.

(The 50-acre shopping mall will eventually be redeveloped into a residential/commercial area with around 4,000 homes.)

Gill donated some objects to the museum including a bridle lead embossed with “P.S. Gill” and a stirrup.

“I didn’t want stuff to sit in the attic,” she said.

Some of these items are in a display case in front of the archives — at the Richmond Cultural Centre — to highlight this history project.

History projects benefit from Dody Wray fund

Many Richmond families were involved in breeding and racing horses, including the family of Dody Wray, nee Blair.

The History of Horse Racing in Richmond video was partially funded by the Dody Wray Special Projects Fund, after Wray bequeathed $15,000 to the archives.

The first project to benefit from the fund was a history of education, since Wray was an educator, explained city archivist Dovelle Buie.

But horse racing was another big part of her life, hence, the decision to focus on its history in Richmond using the funds as well.

As for the Gill family’s history, Buie said Charan Gill brought “critical” information to the research project as her “memories bring (history) to life.”

For Kirby, working on the history of horse racing was an eye opener. Having grown up in Vancouver, she said she had no idea of the significance of the sport in her neighbouring city.

“It’s shocking how little I knew about our neighbours,” said Kirby, whose internship was supported by the Dody Wray Special Projects Fund and a federal Young Canada Works Building Careers in Heritage grant.

But she was also impressed she was able to do such a deep dive into the history of horse racing using just resources from the City of Richmond Archives collection.

To watch the video “A History of Horse Racing in Richmond,” which also includes details about early aviation at the tracks, visit Facebook.

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