Robert T. Davies, the wealthy founder of the Dominion Brewing Company and related to the Taylor family by marriage, acquired the property in the late 19th century and renamed it Thorncliffe Farm.

The name of the farm, and later the racetrack, was inspired by Thorn Cliff, a house built on the west side of the Don River by a member of the third generation of the Taylor family.

After his death in 1916, Davies' estate sold the property to a group of investors from Baltimore, Maryland who built a horse racetrack.

The neighbouring Town of Leaside annexed the nearly 400-acre former raceway in 1954 and demolished it to make way for the planned community of Thorncliffe Park.

[4][5] Today, the old racetrack site is commemorated by local streets called Thorncliffe Park Drive, Grandstand Place, and Milepost Place, as well as a number of residential buildings that took on racetrack stable names like Churchill, Maple Glen, and Willow Glen.