A History of Elmsdale, Elmsdale West, and Brockton, Prince Edward Island

owned by James Adams of O’Leary and driven by Harry O’Brien, a brother to James. The first two heats went to Billy Mac, the third and fourth to the O’Leary Queen, then Billy Mac came back strong and won the final heat with a small margin, among hearty cheers from the spectators.

This might have been the first race but by far not the last — for there have been many exciting occasions when races took place in Elmsdale. It is said that there were three race tracks on the Dock Road, plus racing also took place on the Murray Road, a road not used much by the public - it was used by farmers for easy aCcess to their farmland between the Dock Road and Piusville Road, thus giving free rein to the

racing enthusiasts of both areas.»

Harry and Jim O’Brien each had a racetrack on their farms on the Dock Road, Elmsdale. These were half-mile tracks, built by Harry O’Brien, who was known to be an expert on building racetracks. Harry’s track was the only track registered to hold public races. He called his track Mystic Park, after the famous racetrack in Boston, Mass. that Harry spent much time at while working as a young man in Boston. It has been said that a third track was located on a Matthews’ farm — this was originally the track Harry O’Brien built on his farm. Harry’s home burned, he sold the farm to George Matthews. So the racetrack was on the Matthews’ farm but races were probably never held there. A few years after George had the farm, this track land was plowed down making it a productive farm field once again.

The Matthews boys were greatly interested in horses, as in later years Stewart Matthews would come up the Wells Road to the back of Jim’s farm where the track

was located. Stewart would be seated in his sulky, hitched to his horse Pat, ready to jog. As others came to jog their horses, there was sure to be a race among them before returning home. A few of these race enthusiasts were: Jim, Jerry and Leigh O’Brien, Stewart Matthews, Rev. Mr. Sheen, Ivan O’Brien, Hilton and Ralph Barnett and Tommy Gallant, all of Elmsdale, and Nelson Gallant, Aubin Gallant and his father Maxim Gallant, the wonderful elderly gentleman from Piusville in his sulky hitched to Waltzing Peter. There were always extra horses in the O’Brien stable if someone came without one to race. Mrs. Jerry O’Brien, who helped jog their horses, was known to join the occasional race just to fill up the field for the event.

509