There’s one thing about Fort Erie Race Monitor’s conventional finish of season race, identified domestically because the Tour de Fort, that horsepeople simply discover notably alluring.

“This one is particular, for certain,” stated Michael Bellissimo after his horse, Nonna’s Little Boy, gained the two-mile-long endurance battle to shut out the 2024 season in Fort Erie on Tuesday night. After a couple of lacklustre performances earlier within the yr, Bellissimo talked along with his coach, Willy Armata, about what to do with the cussed horse, who did not appear to wish to dash in brief races.

“The final two races, he actually disillusioned me. He took the lead after the race was over, when it did not depend,” recalled Armata. “So when Michael stated to me, what are we gonna do with this horse, I informed him, in 11 days we’re going within the Tour de Fort, and we took that shot and it labored.”

Carding a marathon race to finish the meet has lengthy been a customized at racetracks throughout North America, however Fort Erie is without doubt one of the few to maintain the custom going with its Tour de Fort, which options two full laps across the historic border oval.

“It is a lengthy distance, so we gotta simply chill out for that first lap,” stated successful jockey Leo Salles. “After that, the plan was to simply keep away from the site visitors, and we did that and gained the race.”

Salles picked up a hat trick of wins on closing day, capping off an unimaginable season for the jockey, who earned the nickname Longshot Leo after a shocking win earlier within the yr the place he rode Gambler’s Pose to victory at 102-1 odds. In line with Equibase, it was the most important longshot win of the yr for any horse in North America, with a whopping $207.20 payout on a $2 wager.

Elsewhere on the wagering aspect of issues, Fort Erie Race Monitor closed out the season with $42.5 million in whole wagering, the second highest in Fort Erie Dwell Racing Consortium historical past, topped solely by the earlier yr’s $46 million banner season. Whereas off-track wagering dipped barely, on-track wagering held regular at $1.93 million.

Fort Erie Race Monitor will reopen on Could 27, 2025 for its 128th season of dwell thoroughbred racing, and can run via to Oct. 21.

All the standard particular occasions will return, together with the Wiener Canine Races, the Corgi & Basset Hound Races, Monitor-O-Lantern, and the monitor’s signature occasion, the ninetieth working of the Prince of Wales Stakes.

For extra details about the upcoming season, go to www.forterieracing.com

This press launch has not been edited by BloodHorse. If there are any questions please contact the group that produced the discharge.