Woodbine Diaries: Destination Draw

I love heading up to the Woodbine Mile Stakes – the Toronto racetrack’s signature race will be the center of an amazing festival of racing on Sunday at Woodbine, but the fun begins on Thursday with the Woodbine Mile Draw.
That meant that I was on the first flight out of New York this morning to make sure that I’d be at Woodbine with plenty of time to spare before the draw. So on Wednesday night, I was sure to set my alarm … for a somewhat intimidating time:

Yikes! But I was so excited for the day ahead of me that I practically bounced out of bed when my alarm went off; and by about 4:15 a.m., I was on the street and hailing a taxi to take me to JFK. 

When I arrived at the terminal, the incredibly kind man operating the Air Canada desk moved my seat to an exit row for the flight. It was a fantastic treat, and I managed to sleep almost the entire way to Toronto. Because I had flown so early, there was no line at customs and before I knew it I was getting into my rental car.
Um, here’s the thing about that: I had totally forgotten that I can’t use my phone’s GPS in Canada because roaming charges are off the chain here; so, I managed to make a very short 10-minute journey from the airport to Woodbine into a half-hour crusade. I’m not kidding when I say it took me two laps just to make it out of the airport alone. I always warn people that I’m bad with directions, but I seriously had no idea how dependent I am on technology until I tried driving in a relatively unfamiliar place without GPS. Awful.
Anyway! The draw. Once I’d finally exited the airport and made my way to the track, it was time for the first of the Woodbine Mile festivities to fire up. 

A draw, by the way, is the way a horse is assigned his or her number in a race. At Woodbine, it’s a double-blind operation, with one person randomly picking a horse’s name while another pulls a pellet-type pill with a number on it out of a bottle. Combine the name and the number and presto! You’ve drawn a post position.
Woodbine makes sure that the draw for the Mile is a memorable affair, with an amazing buffet, a video presentation, a charity aspect and a special guest drawmaster.

Woodbine also displayed the trophies for its two biggest races on Sunday: the Northern Dancer Turf Stakes and the Woodbine Mile. Both are important races with large purses attached, and both are Breeders’ Cup "Win and You’re In" events. That means that the winner of each race will receive a free berth to the respective Breeders' Cup race, plus travel expenses to horse racing’s year-end championships on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Plus, the trophies are pretty sweet! Check out this one for the winner of the Northern Dancer: 

And the stunning cup for the Woodbine Mile winner:

Events kicked off with the arrival of celebrity drawmaster Terrance Ross, who is a guard for the Toronto Raptors. He was awesome, posing for photos and answering a few questions along the way.

Woodbine also made a video about each and every one of the Mile contenders scheduled to run: it was informative and beautiful to watch, which is a perfect TV exacta in my book!

As the draw began, people strained to learn post positions for the horses as the information came rapid-fire from Terrence Ross and the rest of the Woodbine team. Full disclosure here: I was in such a hurry trying to get tweets out that I totally misspelled #1’s name. (Sorry, Ancil!) Fortunately, my friend Derek had the perfect Twitter comeback!

@ABRLive Ansel is so hot right now.
— Derek Brown (@NJDerek) September 11, 2014

I love a good “Zoolander” reference.
Anyway, once the draw was complete, the Woodbine Mile field was in place, and now we’re just counting down the hours until Sunday’s main event!

Terrence Ross stopped to pose for some photos with the Woodbine Mile trophy, and then was mobbed by the press just as soon as he stepped off the podium.

Then it was my turn to join a different mob: the one queued up at the opulent buffet that Woodbine had turned out! I mean, there was everything from kale salad to scallops to delicious ham and fish. 

But I’m not going to lie: the best part (for me, at least) was dessert! I cannot express myself better than I did on Twitter earlier today:

You guys: fig and peach cobbler with homemade white chocolate ice cream at the #WoMile draw. Oh. My. Stars. pic.twitter.com/tHC7U34Dgy
— Penelope P. Miller (@PenelopePMiller) September 11, 2014

Heaven on a plate!
With that, my journey to Woodbine for the Mile draw was complete; but I’ll be back tomorrow with all of the action from morning workouts to the afternoon’s races at the beautiful Toronto track. Thank you for stopping by, and let me know in the comments who you’re rooting for in the Mile!