Matt Dominguez was in Yorkton Friday night making an appearance at the 'Riderville at the Races' in one last effort to add to voting for the campaign put on by the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
For Dominguez, it was a bit of a new thing promoting Riderville at the racetrack rather than at a local mall or maybe a football field.
"This is my first time at horse racing," he said laughing. "But anytime you can get out to promote the Riders."
Dominguez has been spending most of his time with things outside of the football field, currently works as a real estate agent in Regina. He said he will make time to get out and promote his former team whenever the opportunity presents itself. "Some guys don't have the time," says Dominguez with a bit of a smile. "I like to donate my time to worthy causes. We really enjoy it here."
Barry Sharpe, part of the mastermind behind the entire Riderville campaign, said it was a case of 'you scratch our back and we'll scratch yours.'
He said he hopes it will motivate the locals to get home and get on their computers and cast some more votes. Voting takes place online at www.riderville.com and you can place as many votes as you want until Aug. 31.
"There was a duel thing there," Sharpe pointed out. "We wanted to drum up more votes for Riderville (and at the same time), try to get more people out there that wouldn't normally show up at horseracing.""It was a great atmosphere."
"That was the biggest crowd we had for racing in Yorkton," he said later that weekend. "The fans were following him," he said of the former Roughrider wide receiver. "It was great."
Sharpe said Dominguez was equally impressed with the evening's turnout as well as the Riderville campaign in Yorkton as a whole.
"He emailed us back to thank everybody for the evening. We want everybody to vote it's the only way we can win." Dominguez added that he was very impressed with what's happened so far, suggesting Yorkton's definitely put their best foot forward.
"I think Yorkton's done that!"
