SURREY’S mayor-elect Doug McCallum on Tuesday welcomed the commitment from B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson that a B.C. Conservative government will support rebuilding Fraser Downs and work with the City of Surrey and Harness Racing BC to restore a full racing season in Cloverdale.
“Three days ago, Cloverdale voted to bring racing home, and today, the Conservative leader said the Province will be at the table to do it. I thank him for it,” said McCallum. “For 49 years Fraser Downs was the heart of Cloverdale. When the track was shut down in August 2025 and the barns came down in December, 218 members of Harness Racing BC and the grooms, trainers, drivers, farriers, veterinarians and farm families who built their lives around that track were told there was nothing for them here. Cloverdale did not get a say then. It got its say on Saturday, and it said the barns go back up and the horses come home.”
McCallum confirmed that the council he leads will move on the City’s part of the job as soon as it is sworn in: rebuilding the backstretch barns and the racing oval at the Cloverdale Fairgrounds, signing a new long-term racing lease, and bringing the Harness Racing BC office back to the Fairgrounds, with a target of horses on the track for the fall 2027 meet.
“Bringing a racing season back takes three parties, and now two of them are committed. The City owns the Fairgrounds and will rebuild the barns and the oval. Harness Racing BC brings the horses and the people. The Province licenses racing, approves the dates and controls the share of gaming revenue that funds the purses, and no season runs without it,” McCallum said. “I have run Harness Racing BC and I know exactly what that partnership looks like when it works. Today the Conservative leader said the Province will be at the table. That is the commitment Cloverdale has been waiting for, and the day this council is sworn in we will be ready to sit down with him and Harness Racing BC and get to work.”
McCallum and the new council take office in November. The provincial election is Saturday, October 24.
