La première piste de course de l'ile de Montréal, appelée "Fashion Race Course" était située à Lachine. Avant l'inauguration de la ligne de chemin de fer reliant Lachine et Montréal, en 1847, ceux qui voulaient assister à ces spectacles équestres devaient prendre une diligence, rue McGill, ou l'une des 30 calèches que l'on mettait à leur disposition. puis on poursuivait la route jusqu'à l'entrée de Lachine. C'est là qu'en 1842, un Écossais du nom d'Alexander Rae, ouvrit une taverne qu'il nomma "Blue Bonnets". À cette époque, sa taverne était si renommée, que tout le village de Lachine était surnommé "Blue Bonnets". Lorsqu'en 1907, on inaugura la piste de course actuelle, sur le boulevard Décarie, on décida de lui donner le nom de la taverne d'Alexander Rae.
The first race track on the Island of Montreal was named "Fashion Race Course" and was situated in Lachine, Before the inauguration of the train between Lachine and Montreal in 1847, those who wanted to see these races had to take one of 30 horse drawn carriages at their disposal from McGill Street to the entrance of Lachine. It was there that a Scotchman named Alexander Rae opened a tavern named "Blue Bonnets". At that period, his tavern was so popular that the whole village of Lachine had the nickname "Blue Bonnets". In 1907, the actual race track was inaugurated on Décarie Blvd and it was decided to give it the name of Alexander Rae's tavern.
Extrait de "La Piste de Course Blue Bonnets" de Léon Trépanier
Archives SHGV
30 comments:
Hello Guy5479,....Now that is an interesting story,....do you know which Tavern belonged to him,....there were two that I Remember being at the beginning of Lachine,...and one housed the Stardust Cabaret on the 2nd floor ,.with a Tavern down below,......there was also a Tavern directly across the street from the Stardust,..closer to the Lasalle side,.....it was only a Tavern,..and not as large as the Stardust.......\ Great History in that post of yours,....I had never heard that before,......Thanks for the enlightement,.........falls into the (I learn something everyday category...........hahahah) _________Thanks Again ________________________________________hf&rv____________
Guy, Very interesting story about Blue Bonnets. I never knew that it started out in Lachine. Does Albert Trottier still broadcast the race results from Blue Bonnets?
Guy, Very interesting story about Blue Bonnets. I never knew it started in Lachine. Does Albert Trottier still broadcast race results from Blue Bonnets?
Merci beaucoup Guy, now that is interesting , I have been to the track regularly for the past 15 years , I am not a gambler, but love the animals , as matter of fact I spend time working with horses to keep me busy, cleaning up in barn and exercising them , there is a practice track not to far from where I live , so over I go in the morning when I have time and give them a hand , I love horses. Fresco , Blue Bonnets , is now Hipodrome de Montreal, no Albert Trotier and attendance is way down, the track is being sold to be developed and supposed to b e relocated in Laval somewhere , i will keep you informed if you wish , anyone interested in Blue Bonnets , I know the place well , jimmy
Hi Guy, This is indeed a very interesting story. I used to go to Blue Bonnets with my dad when I was a young boy on Decarie Blvd but I did not know it was started in Lachine. As to Fresno750 I believe Albert Trottier passed away many years ago. He was a very young man. He was also the announcer at the Montreal Forum for the Canadiens. Reggie Paine
What years would Albert Trottier have announced the games at the Forum,..? I Remember it being Claude Mouton,....for as long as I can recall,...(he died in 1993 ) I think just after being elected to the Quebec version of a hall of fame,......and of course old Roger Doucette sang the anthem forever (it seems.......hahahaha) Claude Mounton also did some announcing of Horse Races as well,....... the Trottier name though is definetly synonomous with Horse Racing for sure,.....and what was the other familiar name at Blue Bonnetts ? I seem to recall a horse named Hanover (or something like that,........I can still here Trottier's Voice announcing in French & English,...at the races,.......... a l'exteriour ,.on the outside ,..numero 7 ,number 7..............etc etc ................ ...........les Voici ,............Here they are,..... Strange the things we Remember ,............hahahahaha
Maybe if you were Lucky enough to win Big,....you could stop in here,...and Buy a new ride............ ..Blue Bonnets Automobile....................sorry couldn't find an old picture of the entrance to the Race Track (yet),..........all the ones out there so far have the 'Hippodrome' label stuck on them................hahahahaha (What is a Hippodrome), I would think a 'Chevalier Drome' would be more appropriate............hahahaha (sorry about the spelling of horse,.....seems my spelling in either language needs work)............hahahahaha
one of the horses was owned by bob phelan,
anniversary lady,
both have passed on,
for posteriy.
late 80,s.
carolyn bennett
indian shores fl
vch 1962
Les, I wonder if this car dealership became Harold Cummings??? I notice that this is Ford while HC was Chev/Olds, but maybe it was the same. H.C. has been closed for years. m.p.u.
Les, The only facts I am aware of are those shown in the article which I found in the SHGV files and which I also found interesting because Blue Bonnets is such a fixture in Montreal. I am not a gambling man and went there probably only twice in my lifetime.However, if I find other interesting facts, I will post them. Guy
Fresco, I am not aware if the races at Blue Bonnets are still televised but I have not noticed them lately. Perhaps other members know the answer. Guy
Jimmy, The race track is supposed to be relocated in Ste Th챕r챔se where the General Motors plant was situated. This would be a terrific place as it is at the intersection of route 640 and route 15. The provincial government who are involved financially with the racing tracks intends to sell them to private owners which sounds like an excellant idea as us tax payers are paying for the deficits. Guy
BB reading,......... http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=6398 an article about the sale of the track.........blah blah blah...........Political Rhetoric,...?? I also read that Montreal bought the BB lands for 49million,..then sold them for 15 million ( I have no idea if any of this is true,/.....but it sounds like Politics as Usual) .....................and besides why let the truth interfere with a good story..........hahaha MPU ,....I don't know the answer to your question re: the car dealership,.but I will check with a few more of my Montreal afficianados ,and see if I can come up with an answer ......... Thanks again to you Guy5479,......looks like you tweaked some interest from a few members with this BlueBonnetts trivia..................... _______________________________________________HF&RV________
another link this one is of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.......( Yea I didn't know they had one either.........hahahaha) but there may be some old interesting trivia stuff of Montreal's race tracks........don't forget about the backriver track,...Richelieu...too........... http://www.horseracinghalloffame.com/ Hope it's of some sort of interest,......I have not perused the site myself so I am unsure of it's content,........ Have a Good weekend everyone,...... and I hope the shaking stops in Ottawa,.............here on the westcoast,...our blenders create more shaking than a mere 4.5 quake,...........Yes Ottawa had a little quake,......bet you all thought it might be time to give up the bottle..................hahahahah )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))havefunandrememberverdun)))))
Hi Les, I would guess that it would be over 40 years ago because I was single at that time. Maybe Mouton replaced Trottier as the announcer. Reggie Paine
Hi Reg,.....now that would be about right ,.cause I think Claude started in the early 60's,.....(so there's the 40 yr time span),.........I Remember a time when the announcer from the Forum,..was implicated in 'fixing ' the clock to stop on either the odd or even numbers,..that was when everyone used to buy those 'hockey tickets' Remember you got a certain amount for the last goal,.last penalty,...etc etc ....one store on Verdun Av btwn 3rd & 4th used to put two of those tickets tucked into the calendar up on the wall as you came in,...and those two tickets were for the local 'gendarme' as a 'gift'...........hahahahaha I think the tickets wereeither .50 cents,.or something like that,......everyone had them,....just a simple piece of paper/cardboard,...folde in half and stapled,.and your times were inside,...... DannyB ,....you Remember those ,......I think you won a few good ones didn't you .......also was there an Alber Trottier jr ,.as well,.....his name seemed to be around forever ..............Actually it was the 'timekeeper' who was charged,..and I don't believe the 'timekeeper' and the 'announcer ' were one and the same,......... I have a book of tthe History of the Montreal Forum,..I'll try & look it up and see if I can find the dates ,.that Mr Trottier was there ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))have a good weekend everyone(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
Hi Les, I remember that incident about the last second pool. You are right it was the timekeeper that was charged not the announcer. What he did was make sure the second was odd and not even or vice versa. Pretty good scheme though. Probably why I never won. Reggie Paine
Story, 17 years ago , I quit drinking, I had done my share and my body said time for a rest , I take a glass or two of wine now at nights , and maybe a beer, not a case and a bottle like the old days . Somehow or other I ended up at Blue Bonnets , like everyone else I had been there a few times in my life time , but never on a steady basis . I bet a lttle bit and the fortunate thing that happened to me was I lost, I came home and told my wife I am not enjoying this , losing my money at the track , so I became a 2.00 bettor , it was stay home or go to the track, I met a driver and went to his barn out here in the Ile Perrot area , Mario Baillargeon, who now drives in Toronto and is one of the best. I b ecame friends with his father , so every day after work I . .would go to the barn and help feed the horses , and thats how I got involved in horses and blue bonnets . After a couple of years of this , I knew quite a bit about horses and horse races . I shall continue this story bit by bit , hope your interested . Jim
Hi Kungfu, I appreciate hearing your stories so please continue. Mario is indeed one of the top drivers on the WEG circuit which is probably the best one in North America. I have been down south for a few weeks and have not been able to read up on your grandson's hockey games. I hope they were better than our chumps in the olympics. Reggie Paine
Hey Kungfu. Bring on those stories. I am interested. Will wait for the next installment. Winston Allison
When I started to go to Blue Bonnets , the handle was over a million a card ( meaning a race program , usually 10 races ) now one thing I want you to realize while you read , this is completely out of my head and is the way I see and saw the situation, it is strictly my story , and no one else is involved, however you have to remember I was going to the track at least 5 times a week , and hanging around with a trainer plus probably the best driver at the track , so , I was pretty well in the know, however this is my story , if anyone is offended , well to bad, but this is the way I see and saw the situation . When I first started to go to Blue Bonnets , say 15 years ago, it was because I had to fill in the time at nights , that I used to play hockey and baseball and then head to the local bar for beers and home. My wife did not mind as she loved following grandkids at soccer and she also belonged to a group who painted , so she and I were quite happy with the situation, and i became a real horse lover , I just loved the game , I learned all the tricks , and watched the races as others would watch hockey , baseball etc, in other words I knew what was going on druing the race , I could pick out spots where horses should be moved to the outside to have a chance to win, and when they were not put outside , I became aware that all horses are not necessarily going to the races, ( meaning not out there to win just collect some prize money ) so in my own way i became a pretty good handicapper. I still stuck to my two dollar bets, although I often enjoyed putting 10 bucks on the nose (win) or even 20 sometimes , but I was never a winner or loser , but was enjoying the races as any other sport . I never yelled at the drivers or made any fuss and I always stayed near the rail , so the drivers got to know me and the odd tip came my way . It was a great way for me to fill in leaisure time , I met lots of people at the track, and it was a great hangout . I am not a gambler, I even hate losing two bucks , thats the scottish in me . So here we are at Blue Bonnets , pretty informed and enjoying the races , from here on in , some of the dates could be wrong and other people might see the situation differently than I do , but this is my story and I hope it interestes you . I also want to state that not all I write will be in the exact proper order, meaning dates etc. as I am using memory only and not refering to any written material .later jim
Les, you would not believe the things I have come across in my Dad's place.......like this ticket you were refering to........... ...there was so much junk, that a lot is just stuffed into boxes, and I will go thru them eventually......mpu
MPU Perhaps he saved it because it was a winner!!!!! I can appreciate all the "stuff" that people collect as they age, seems like they all do it. Heck, I also have some treasures that I don't quite know what to do with. I wonder what my daughter will think when she has to sort through the stuff. I know, maybe I'll label everything with a note saying why I kept them....naaaa...too much trouble. Let the future generation have fun with my treasures and let them guess as to why I kept them.
After about two years hanging around the track , which the land at that time belonged to the City of Montreal and the track was run by private enterprise , the horsemen decided to go on strike for a bigger share of the purse money and other improvements to the track, BIG MISTAKE , The owners with money , meaning big owners took their horses to Toronto and other points and these people here went without for six months, The the government changed and in came the P.Q , who set up a horse association to run the track under the leadership of a few of their friends, surly you did not think they would put liberals in this nice cash collecting game did you ? The new group was called SONACC or something like that , it translated into horse association the two c's; cheval de course . these guys were connected to people in high places as the word was around the track , so much so that one of the directors was a personal friend of top P Q Brass , he was reported to have a top brass P Q 'er on his board of directors in a huge company in the United States .Out of the woodwork came new budgets for the race track , it was decided to improve the track and to showcase the track as a QUEBEC Masterpiece , as I see it they figured to get tons of publicity out of the horse racing business, and of course the insiders started to buy QUEBEC Bred horses as they were informed that the purses were to be doubled and tripled , meaning if your horse won a cheap race that you used to make a grand on , you would now be able to make 3 grand from these great business men in SONACC (don't you dare believe this ) So people with dough started to get really serious about breeding Quebec bred horses and selling them at auction, of course the breeders were happy as they were getting fantastic prices for baby horses at the auction held once a year , and the purses were increased so much that it was unbelieveable, me being a small business man watched this nonsense , even as the purses increased which I shall explain later the handle was going down (meaning people were betting less , and less people attending the races ) now we all know if you spend more than yu take in , your slidding in the mud, but when your partener is the government , seems like a bottomless pit to me . more later and yes this is about Blue Bonnets , I am only getting started hahaha jim
An old postcard of Blue Bonnets http://www.harnessdriver.com/photos.html Steve
This message has been deleted due to termination of membership.
Tonight I donated the Lee Enfield .303 calibre rifle my Grandfather had while serving in the first world war to the Royal Montreal Regiment Museum on Ste.Catherine St. in Westmount. My Father was associated with the RMR and the Branch 14 of the Legion for the last 60 years, and I only thought it fitting to make this donation. The museum curator was very appreciative. I have seen other items in my Dad's things that I intend to donate to this museum. mpu
Hi MPU,.that is a decent gesture on your part,...and I'm sure your Dad would appreciate that,.now they can be enjoyed by all who take the time to visit your local museum (Military Museum),........
MPU Have also done the same thing out here in Comox, but to the Royal Air Museum, as both my mom and dad were in the Air Force. I had newspapers and memorabilia from the different bases they were on, and pictures like you wouldn't believe. As you found, the cureator was very appreciative. Found out something very interesting. My dad was a pilot, and my sister has his "Flying Log", but the museum cureator told me that 'officially' all flying logs belong to the government and technically should be returned to them....ya learn something new every day. Ya done a good thing
So the Quebec government dumped in 20 million to make over the race track, now me being a business man, I would have spent the money first on the clubhouse and restaurants to increase attendance at the track before pouring money into the track itself . To give you an example , the rail around the trak was made of aluminum at a cost of one million bucks, and I have it on good authority , that there were two companies tied to the government , to landscape the infield, one wanted to seed it and one wanted to put sod , so guess what? they did both , sure was green till we had a dry summer . The purses for the Quebec races increased , and the best part was still to come, The purses for quebec bred two and three year olds , in the Quebec finals for Quebec bred horses was raised to 250 thousand for each race , females and males , all the while less and less people attending the races , Now the big money in breeding quebec bred horses and auctions was flying. The new Board running the race track , decided to take a trip to FRANCE to see how horse racing was run over there, I mean As has been posted above , horse races were going on here for about 150 years , but these seppies wanted to learn from good old France , wonder what that cost the taxpayers. Then in their wisdom they created a race for the best trotters in the world for a purse of 500.000 bucks , insider information says it cost at least that much to publicize the race and pay owners to ship their horses to Quebec . On race day Montreal mounted police on black horses with fleur de lys flags flying in their holsters were leading the parade of horses, a Quebec cabinet minister was there to offer the prize money , Fleur de lys every where . what a spectacle , at tax payers expense, these guys sure knew how to live. Before all this took place , they SONNAC , in all their wisdom decided to make Blue Bonnets FRENCH , and all announcements were changed from bi- lingual to french, including the removal of the name BLUE BONNETS and renamed Hippodrome de Montreal and that is where the name Blue Bonnets is today , in the garbage can , after being in use for 150 years, do you think it could be because the name is English . hahahahahahahahahaha hang tough Jimmy
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