While the Grandstand has stood since 1958, the events that it has allowed people to watch have changed and evolved steadily over the years, as the fair changed to reflect the ever-changing audience expectations in the region. Standardbred harness racing, for example, came back to the Saskatchewan Stampede and Exhibition in Yorkton in 1985. Before 1985, it was absent from the event for 12 years.
With betting being relatively new in the city, there were plenty of people willing to talk their strategies for success. Kathy Bell reported on those different strategies, whether employed by first time betters or those that had been at it for years.
And for all this he also said he didn’t always win, saying that “the ones that say they win all the time are fibbing.”
Others, such as a man named Norm, used a system of speed indexing, averaging first quarter and last quarter times in their last three starts.
That said, not every person putting down cash had a complex system for deciding on their bets. Ed Osterman of Vancouver had never gone to the horse track before, and picked based on “what looked and sounded good,” since the numbers in the program didn’t mean anything. Ethyl Stratychuk picked based on her maiden name. Her system was as good as any, since she also won.
The only constant among betters was that none of them viewed it as a reliable way to make money, but instead a way to give the racing some stakes and make it a bit more fun to cheer on and watch.
In keeping with the theme of ever-changing interests of the fair, Craig Burkell with the Yorkton Exhibition Association spoke to Yorkton This Week about taking a ‘long, hard look’ at the entertainment on offer, suggesting that they might move away from an annual rodeo and tractor pull, as the audience interest in those activities was waning. That eventually happened, of course, and the fair in 2019 was a very different assortment of events than the ones in 1985, without a rodeo or tractor pull in the mix.
By Devin Wilger