We need a "financial arrangement that allows for success."

Published: July 2, 2013 10:46 am EDT

Our premier, Kathleen Wynne, has made it clear that she understands how important the horse racing industry is to Ontario, and has asked the panel to come up with a long term plan so that we have a sustainable future.

To have a sustainable future, any industry needs a chance to grow and prosper. This makeshift deal that is happening now, where the government hands out money here and there will not work. People will not invest in an industry if all the arrows are pointing down. This government has come to learn that horse racing is a tremendous industry, involving many thousands of people and associated businesses. The nature of this business is that the purse money earned is put back into the economy at an extremely high rate. This is good for our economy because the money generated in horse racing stays in circulation.

Before I continue, I want to state my concern with this panel’s thoughts on refocusing HIP. In harness racing, a strong Sires Stakes program is an absolute necessity in having a vibrant and successful breeding and racing industry. Over the years, much effort has been made in Ontario by industry leaders to put together the best Sires Stakes program in North America. I believe that we do have the best Sires Stake program and are the envy of the racing world. The changes that the panel is proposing to the program are wrong and ill-advised in my opinion, and have the potential of doing significant harm to the industry.

There are some good ideas in this panel’s first draft and I would like to talk about them at a later date, but for now, to make all these improvements possible, we need to address the most important cog in the wheel of any industry and that is MONEY. Ms. Wynne has made it clear that she supports a strong horse racing industry and that it should be integrated with the OLG.

The following is what I think is needed to accomplish this:

1. If slot machines are at a racetrack (and they should be because they have proven to be successful and the government wants integration) the tracks and horse people should get a percentage of the profits from the slot machines. The States that we have to compete with south of the border all share their slot machine profits with the racing industry, and are prospering. Ohio is the newest state to join in and they have brought horse racing back from the grave and turned it into a thriving industry again. Like us, Ohio has a large rural community that relies on horse racing as part of the total agricultural industry. One thing that is seldom mentioned is that slot revenues are up considerably on the nights and days when there is live racing at the track. This is something that should be considered as an additional justification for sharing the slot revenues.

2. If this panel and government insist that the percentage the horse racing industry was getting with the SARP deal was too high, then it should be adjusted to a rate that is acceptable to all parties, and accomplish Ms. Wynne’s desire to solve this problem.

3. To make up for some of the lost income that our industry would lose due to a smaller cut from the slot revenues, instant racing machines should be vigorously pursued. The thing I like most about these machines is that they are horse racing. It is something that the tracks can use to create interest in live racing. I envision these instant racing machines being integrated within the racetrack itself, and placed in sections that are accessible to live racing.

One of our problems is the amount of time between live races, and these machines are perfect for the customers who want instant entertainment between the live races. I think these new machines placed within the tracks themselves, as well as at other off-track terminals, would be good for horse racing and a great added revenue producer for the government and horse racing.

4. All of the suggestions by the panel for added revenue sources are very good and should be pursued, but in themselves are not enough to accomplish the goals of the government, and certainly not the needs of the horse racing industry.

There is no doubt that the racing industry has had a big problem with track ownership, where certain owners have no interest in horse racing, and have been allowed to take large sums of money out of the SARP deal and then put nothing back into the business. In contrast, horse people and the tracks that care about horse racing put almost everything back into the business and the economy.

The tracks that truly care about horse racing and horse people should be given the tools to carry on and make Ontario the envy of the horse racing world just as we have been for years. Georgian Downs and Flamboro Downs are great facilities in good markets and are much needed by the harness racing industry. Great Canadian Gaming or their successor needs the incentive to run an adequate number of race days at these tracks, and promote racing and wagering to the fullest. Rideau Carleton is in a big market and needs to promote racing and wagering more as well.

With these for-profit tracks a certain amount of checks and balances seem to be needed to ensure that horse racing and wagering is promoted to the fullest. Windsor should be a good market for horse racing, has historically had a pretty good handle, and should have a racetrack. It seems hard to imagine right now, but if the right conditions and incentives were put into place that would entice someone or some group to build a new racetrack there, it would be a tremendous lift for Ontario horse racing, and a sign of success by this government and panel. Ontario has been the model of success for horse racing for years that other states and countries have copied, and with some of these new changes and improvements that the panel is talking about along with adequate revenue, we can raise the bar even higher.

In conclusion, this panel has put a lot of work into this report and I agree with some of their observations, and possible solutions. Building the handle, catering to our customers, promoting horse racing, etc. are all very important, and I would really like to get into a discussion on all of these issues, but first it is of utmost importance that we start with a financial arrangement that allows for success.

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