Rocky Mountain Turf Club rides into new season

By Lethbridge Herald on May 6, 2022.

Jockey Jose Rocha gives a chin scratch to one of the horses in the barns Thursday after finishing a morning of training sessions out on the track, as the Rocky Mountain Turf Club gets ready to open the gates on the spring meet this Saturday. HERALD PHOTO BY IAN MARTENS

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Rocky Mountain Turf Club held its season-opening press conference on Thursday after what was a difficult period for the club during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“And now we’ll have 33 race days this year, $5,000 in (the) purse,” said Max Gibb, CEO and principal of Rocky Mountain Turf Club.

“We’re a major driver of economics for Lethbridge, southern Alberta, tourism (and) agriculture, hundreds of people employed. We’re enthused with horse racing. Horse racing has been important in Alberta and southern Alberta for years. In fact, if you watch the movie Seabiscuit, three of the main riders actually came from Alberta…and we’re excited that we’re going to have a great year.”

Gibb said it’s been tougher with COVID and they were a little light to start with.

“It was a crazy winter with training and getting horses ready,” he said.

RMTC was closed nine of 24 months during the pandemic and it was a struggle.

“But we’re back and we’re good and everything appears to be as good as we’ve ever been,” said Gibb. “Our attendance on all of our programs so far have been good and back to normal.”

Gibb spoke to the longevity and how the Club has gotten to 27 years.

“I think there used to be horse racing in every community,” said Gibb. “Lethbridge, southern Alberta have been a race centre; no question about it. The community and the rural and Lethbridge have loved horse racing and now it’s all centered in Lethbridge and it gave a come together of all the communities.”

“You’ve got to come to races, get your derby on,” said Rose Rossi, RMTC general manager. “And whatever normal looks like, what does normal look like? But yeah let’s just have fun.”

Rossi says it’s all about getting people comfortable again to get out.

“I still have sanitization stations and everything and social distancing. I say you know what let’s be smart about this and we’re outdoors which is great,” she said.

Dwight Crazy Boy is a second-year jockey on team Anatapsii for the Warrior Relay circuit and is excited to be back at RMTC.

“It’d mean a lot because it’s a real good track,” he said. “I like it. We get treated real good here. It’s close to home and we never really have any problems here.”

There’s something for every age at the races such as Milo’s petting zoo, the stick horse races, the candy scramble, and the jump up and shout and photo booth, to name a few.

The Kentucky Derby-style race will kick-start the season on Saturday at 1 p.m.

According to the organization, RMTC has contributed $370 million into the local economy for each of the last 25 years.

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