The Horses At Evergreen Park has a new race secretary.

Jason Teague is now responsible for putting together the entries for the 15-day summer season of pari-mutuel horse racing at JDA Raceway.

Teague was born and raised in Edmonton, where he still resides. He and his wife, Christian, have two children – Braden and Jaleigh.

The sport has been part of his life for decades.

“I was introduced to horse racing over 40 years ago when my parents, Ruth and Chester, owned and raced horses,” he says. “I bought my first horse in 1993.”

He raced and bred horses until taking a racing officials’ position at Northlands Park in Edmonton in 1999.

“I started out as the clerk of scales and patrol judge until 2001 when I took on the position of paddock judge and assistant race secretary,” he says.

His first race secretary role was in 2009 at Northlands.

“I became the race secretary at Northlands park for the thoroughbreds and in 2011 I also became the race secretary for the Standardbreds,” he says. “I worked at Northlands Park until December of 2018 when racing ended after a lengthy history at Northlands.

In 2016, he was elected into the Jockey Club of Canada, “which I consider a great honor”.

He loves the work.

“Horse racing is my passion and I enjoy the people involved. The long hours of work that comes along with the job is not for everyone, but when it is your passion its worth it.  Even after these many years I continue to learn something new every day.”

The job, in some ways, is like being a referee. Tough decisions have to be made and you aren’t going to please everyone.

“If I have learned one thing in this industry, as much as you want to you cannot make everyone happy.”

Teague says he would like to thank Evergreen Park General Manager Dan Gorman and Racing Manager Pat Hill for the opportunity to come to Evergreen Park and to do “something I love”.

Racing fans have an opportunity to check out Teague’s work on entries when The Horses At Evergreen Park continue this Saturday and Sunday at JDA Raceway with 1:15 p.m. posts each day. Racing continues until Sunday, August 23 every Saturday and Sunday with the exception of a Friday, July 31 race card at 5:15 p.m.

Admission is free (visit www.evergreenpark.ca to get tickets, but there will be some walk-up available) and masks are mandatory.

If you are unable to attend there is a Lifestream of the racing available through the Park website and you can also sign up to bet online through Xpressbet.com and HPIbet.com.

All of the races will also be shown on the screens in the Evergreen Park Casino. There are betting kiosks in the Casino.