Blue Bonnets 1925.JPG (9120 bytes) BLUE BONNETS RACECOURSE Blue Bonnets 1922.JPG (9221 bytes)
The Blue Bonnets raceway is situated in Montreal in Quebec and opened for the first time on 4th June 1907.
Montreal_triple_crown.JPG (4749 bytes) Racing had originally been held in Ville Saint-Pierre since 1872. Blue Bonnets President from 1907 to 1920 was H Montague Allen.

 By 1943 the course had introduced harness racing to boost finances and this went from strength to strength.

Blue Bonnets 1926.JPG (10214 bytes)

I am grateful to Bill Conrod for sharing his memories of his favourite racecourse.

I was raised in Montreal 4 blocks from Blue Bonnets. As a 13 year old I would ride my bike north on Macdonald St. to the CPR tracks then over an access road into Blue Bonnets via MacDonald. I think the access was also used for over-flow traffic when the races ended. My brother and several friends  spent a lot of summer time visiting the stables, horses, stable-boys,trainers and the occasional bettor. We were thrilled to walk the horses when they needed a cooling down. The occasional wash/shower/bath was always an effort as the horses were so big and quite spirited. The stable-boys, most of whom were the first Black people we knew, were always interested in our eagerness to help out. That led to the occasional smoke and ‘crap” game with them. My introduction to gambling!
The horses were beautiful! and even smelled great! We would get talked into mucking out a stable or two and felt lucky to be asked. We were all playing softball at MacDonald park at the time but as soon as practice was over on our bikes we were and off to “the Track” as we called it. I think I spent a few summers that way. I have a vivid memory of being handed a stop watch to time a horse....what a thrill. It was much later that I ventured to the other side of Blue Bonnets and started to bet on the races but my eyes were always looking across the field to the south where so many good summers were passed. 
I have written a book entitled ‘Memories of Snowdon in the 1950’s' containing some references to the Raceway.

Blue Bonnets 1927.JPG (9403 bytes) So much so that in 1954 flat racing ended for a while, although it did return to the track in 1961.

 

Blue Bonnets 1929.JPG (10029 bytes)
If you have badges, racecards, pictures of the racecourse or further details about the course, including your memories, then email johnslusar@fsmail.net