Attracting New Business

Published: November 7, 2014 09:52 am EST

How can we attract new business with no business plan?

It doesn't matter what line of work you are in. If you are looking for new investment, you need to show people why you are worthy of that investment, how you will potentially make them money, and if everything fails, how safe their money truly is.

Investing in horse racing – Both in ownership or at the betting window - is obviously high risk. The best horse, with the best driver can get beat any day of the week – that’s part of the excitement

With our industry on such brittle ground, owners and racehorses have flooded to other jurisdictions. Mostly for a shot at higher purses, but some just the byproduct of our industries forced shrinking or "right sizing", as the government likes to call it.

Some of us have scraped by, some of us have endured. Really just hoping for anything that will help make us feel like we can see the light at the end of this tunnel we have all been shoved into.

I like many, have a vested personal interest in how our industry will look in 2015 and beyond. I have had conversations with potential owners about investing and I must say, putting together a business plan is quite difficult right now.

In most cases it's impossible, and not at all interesting to the everyday person to invest in our industry even if they have some money to "gamble with".

Prior to the SARP cancellation, you could buy a horse, even sometimes overspend because you could show someone how you would be able to get their money out barring any unforeseen injuries.

These days that isn't the case.

If you can't buy a horse for Woodbine/Mohawk and race it there productively you will more than likely lose money, and after months of doing so you will lose your investor.

Claiming a horse used to be one of the best ways to introduce a new owner to the game, but these days the claimers are so few and far between that that's an unlikely foray for even the most adventurous gambler. Many have voiced these very concerns but I haven't seen any alleviation or any addressing of this problem from anyone?

Now, don't let me misrepresent myself, I'm not in any inner circle and have not met with anyone in over a month so if this issue is being addressed I apologize. But like everyone else, how would I possibly know?

The dark is comforting to the blind. But after all we have been through, the lack of dialogue really is shocking.

We horsemen are not known for our foresight, but most of us are just terrified that our industry's descent has slowed but not stopped, and we have no idea which way up is anymore.

Is the OLG actually going to integrate horse racing into its gaming future plans?
What does that even mean? More importantly, if they don't know what's going on, how can we?

We have been told that we need to bring in new gamblers, increase our revenue, virtually change the face of this sport. How can we do that when we have lost so many of our investors and cannot possibly formulate a business plan for new investment without the use of a Ouija board?

If you can only make money if you are winning at WEG and your best "B" track option is a break even, why would anyone invest? What do you think will happen to the small tracks if this continues?

The only reason you play the games at the carnival is to win something for your girlfriend. Either that or you don't mind wasting money. Well I'm married now, and Ontarians are running out of money.

We have to make it easier to put together grass roots business plans.

We have to put money back into the B tracks.
We need claimers to be raced in Ontario on a regular basis and we need to spur economic investment again in this industry or there will be no racing for the OLG to integrate.

Anthony MacDonald


The views presented in Trot Blogs are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Standardbred Canada.

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