The Yorkton Exhibition Grandstand is usually full of people at least once per week during the summer for standardbred racing. Over the weekend, it saw a crowd gathered for the first time on a winter day.
Yorkton Exhibition president Shaun Morin was generally pleased with the turnout which saw an impressive number of entries for their first winter event in "as far as I can remember", he said at the conclusion of the day.
The grandstand itself and the fence separating the drag strip from the viewing area had its share of people watching and cold weather didn't seem to bother anyone.
Temperatures had dropped to -17 degrees the night before. Morin said he was hoping for a bigger turnout but said all went "goodfor the first year doing it".
Yorkton Sno-Riders president Jason Popowich told the paper that even freezing weather doesn't matter, at least not when it comes to the actual racing.
"The sleds seem to run better, he says. "When it's colder, they're more durable throughout the race."
He said there were about 80 sleds entered into the competition and Kyle Raddish of Yorkton, Morin said, was among the participants called up to the podium for awards at the end of the day.
"We were happy. There were lots of riders," says Morin.
He added that there was also quite the turnout from out-of-town; riders came from Fort McMurray, Prince Albert and also from parts of northern Manitoba.
"Yeah, it was good," Morin added, noting "I've never seen it before."
He said the plans to do something fun outdoors was idea from the braintrust of the Yorkton Exhibition Association to do something big in the City once a month.
"The Exhibition (over the next 2-3 years) has decided to become more aggressive," Morin explains.
They plan to get more creative in terms of their ideas/presentations, he adds.
Starting this year, they believe they may have added their first winter event in the snow drags.
"We'll have a (new) project basically every month. This one's something to build on," he said of the drag idea.
Morin said the YEA has been making some money. Sponsorship from the drag included the Painted Hand Casino. They are also collecting from the concession stands and admissions at the entrance gates, he said.
If this year's event was any indication, it could be bigger next year now that the YEA's staff now has some experience in putting something together like this (an outdoor event when temperatures can easily drop to -20 degrees).
"Next year, we will fix it up."
He added that it was also fun working with the Sno-Riders.
Popowich said he thought the day went well, too.
"It's a really good working relationship with the Yorkton Exhibition. We were happy."
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