Elliotts Doing What They Can

Published: April 9, 2020 12:02 pm EDT

Harness horsepeople stabled at Dorchester Downs Training Centre, just outside of London, Ont., were the recipients of a tremendous act of generosity this month.

Joe and Judy Elliott, along with their son, Sam, are the owners and operators of the training centre. Joe recently held an on-site meeting for those that are stabled there in order to go over some of the new ‘ground rules’ that coincide with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“Joe went around to everyone and he wanted us all to be at this meeting,” says lifelong horseman Laurie Bako. “And of course we followed along with the social distancing rules for this meeting. So we’re sitting around and Joe is now discussing who would be allowed on the grounds going forward and he’d go over a few other things with us and then at the end of it he says, ‘We’ve talked it over and to try to help everyone out (who’s stabled here) we’re going to waive the April stall rent.’ Well we didn’t expect that at all,” says Bako. “You know we wanted to get up and shake this man’s hand, but of course we can’t do that right now.”

Right now the daily routine continues, as there’s still plenty of work to do with the racehorses, even though the races are currently on hold. “We’re keeping busy, but we’re still kind of waiting on word from government and following along with the info provided by our industry leaders,” continued Bako. “The Elliotts certainly lightened the load on us that’s for sure.”

(With files from Shannon ‘Sugar’ Doyle, for The Raceway at Western Fair District)

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