Harness Racing To Lose Millions

Mr. Michaels, you make it sound as if we in the industry are simply taking bountiful handouts. We do pay back into it by purchasing goods and services. In fact, there are very few horsepeople who are not subsidizing their horse businesss with personal funds. It's a tough business and many are leaving as we speak after years of trying to keep their heads above water. Perretti Farms is a prime example. When we see the big guys getting out, it sure doesn't bode well for the small ones. You may not have to worry much longer about "public funds" going to the horsepeople. We may not be here much longer. There will, however, be a long lineup of unemployed people looking for work in many areas of society. How do you feel about paying out "public funds" in welfare cheques?

Mike Michaels says "Purse cuts should also be made at the major tracks, like Woodbine and Mohawk" How do you ever come to that conclusion is beyond me.

Woodbine handles over 1 million a night and the slots are jammed every night and you say cut the purses? The purses here should be a minimum of 25% higher then they are at on the WEG circuit in every class with the exception of NW1 NW2 NW3 NW4 in which they are fine. The Preferred class here, goes for 28 grand, a 30 claimer in Yonkers goes for more and Yonkers handles 1/2 of what Woodbine does and they arent even in the same league as far as slots go. Someone here, please explain that to me?

Why do you think there has been an influx of horses that are leaving this circuit to go race in New York or Pennsylvania (psst , its because of the purses) ? 10 claimer, 8 grand ? 12-15 claimer 10 grand? The claiming game here is basically dead, whats that tell you? Classes are combined because of a shortage of horses, whats that tell you ?

Gary Blackburn

To John Carter
Your point about the take out is well noted and very valid.I was jsuut trying to say that if the horseracing business (especially harness it would seem) does not clean itself up so that it can attract the big bettors and true racing fans who left the game it will continue on in it's downward spiral until it is non existant,and unimportant which it is perilously close to now. I just listed some of the things that came to mind but of course takeout as you so correctly point out is critical. Like you after 30 plus years of playing I have had enough with the joke that used to be racing in Ontario.

well, well, well, what's all the fuss about? it was just a question of time before someone woke up and decided to make changes.BRAVO! changes must be made in order to rearrange the horse racing industry in ontario. how generous($$$) it was for the ontario provincial goverment to subsidies the horse racing industry in ontario for all these years. coming from quebec,( la belle province) the goverment decided to say "NO MORE". enough is enough! that is why the horse racing industry in quebec is "dead". private partners must be able to restart the harness industry in quebec, with only a little help from the goverment. To conclude, purses in ontario racetracks must be cut drastically. too much purse money is being given to B tracks. There is more money given in purses at these B tracks then, what people are betting. it just doesn't make good business sense. the handle in these B tracks are very low. also, purse cuts should also be made at the major tracks, like woodbine and mohawk.and if the horse people are not happy,well then, let them go somewhere else, no one would shed a tear on theme. I never saw an industry, like the horse racing industry, being subsidies by goverments for sooooo many years,Unbelievable! The horse people just don't get it, their industry is being supported by public funds.

Accountability? All the horsemen had to do was have someone on the committee to "oversee" how the money was being spent. Instead they veto it with the "thinking it's their money" attitude & the greed takes over. Good idea in the short term afterall change is a bad thing!

I also love that "it's not the horsemens job to market the industry" thought! Whose job is it? Do you think the OLG or the track for that matter gives a crap about the horsemen? Seems like the horsemen feel they are entitled to this subsidy & believe it will last forever regardless if there's a demand for the product they have or not!

Hi Rob, Unfortunately it was never our money, because if it was, the government would not be able to take it away with the stroke of a pen. We're just keeping it warm.

As for this 'business plan' criticism we hear as a crux to kill the SC plan, it was and still is a red herring. Today the Jockey Club in the US announced the McKinsey report. It was a framework to enact many of the same items SC asked us to fund. They are planning to spend multi-millions on television and social media over the next 24 months. They paid 2 million for the framework and have earmarked many more millions..... without a magic 'business plan'.

To think SC did most of the framework for free through volunteers and through several wagering conferences.

Jim Gagliano, COO of the Jockey Club is one if the smartest folks I have ever spoken to in racing. He achieved exactly what SC proposed without a business plan. But that's not good enough for us, apparently.

Next year, when we see new thoroughbred websites, social media games, televised highlight shows, jockey challenge series, stakes races shown on Versus and much more, we will probably be still asking for a 'business plan', while hand wringing on a comment section about the government taking another 11 million of "our money".

That's unacceptable to me, and I hope to many others in our sport. I don't think we should go down without a fight, and I don't want to be racing for ribbons in twenty years.

Dean

"In the future, please get your facts straight before being critical of the people who are being asked for their hard earned money..."

That's the point - it's not "our earned money". It's slots money, in the form of a subsidy, and it can easily be taken away. It is.

bye bye golden goose ... the slots helped save the industry and now it will kill the industry. glad i got out last year

To Joe Riga, the racing industry can address all issues such as drugs, boring racing and so on and so forth. If they were able to clean all of these issues up but didn't address the issue of excessive track takeout all there efforts would be for nothing. The big betters aren't coming back until the race game gets real with there takeout rates.

I have been saying on here for approx 2 years that the race game was on borrowed time if they didn't drop the track takeout and start competing with other forms of gambling. I have said over and over again that it was just a matter of time before slot revenue would start to get taken away from them if they did not increase the handle and stay relevant. There is no other way of increasing the handle any worthwhile amount other then reducing takeout.

The race game is starting to get exactly what they deserve. Tracks are full of management teams and board of directors that do not get it, they are there to collect a paycheck and not much more. I have not bet a race in over 2 years and will never bet another race until some track(harness) with a million dollar plus handle reduces the takeout rate to a max of 10% in every pool. They have lost all kinds of people like me, they also have no chance of competing for the next generation of gamblers because they are playing low vig forms of gambling such as poker and sports. Racetrack management has lost an entire generation of gamblers and they are no closer to getting it now then they were 20 years ago. What the government took off them now is just the beginning.

OHHA did see this coming - long before slots were implemented. They fought against it as best they could, again without the support of its membership who could only see dollar signs. COSA didn,t exist then so OHHA had the members of all jurisdictions for support to no avail. Now they get what they deserve. I expect a lot of owners will throw in the towel.

It is just the start and it would not be so bad if the Harness Racing Industry(Owners, Trainers, Drivers, Officials, Tracks, etc.)were rearranging the chairs on the Titanic, but even worse they are drilling holes in the bottom of the Titanic to let the water out!!

As with most governments ONTARIO is in debt. OLG spends a lot of money printing scratch tickets renting property and employing employees with a huge PAYROLL. HOWEVER with THREE BILLION (plus) GROSS INCOME it wouldn't surprise me if OLG was PRIVITISED one day? The government would get out of the gaming business and receive a few BILLION to pay off their deficit!'!!!!!!

Firstly Allan, it's not the horsemen's job to market the industry. It's everybody's job, tracks, OLG, and horsemen. Secondly, it was the horsemen's representatives, that being COSA and OHHA, that disagreed wholeheartedly to the proposal because it was bad business. There was no plan in place, just a general idea. Nobody is in the business of giving away our money without a business plan as to where it is going. All they asked for was to approach the horsemen with a legitimate plan as to where and how our money was gong to be used to help. I'm quite sure you don't give your money away to anybody who asks for it. In the future, please get your facts straight before being critical of the people who are being asked for their hard earned money...

Just WHY do we elect these people???
Typical political moves - 'promise' fair payment, give us a taste of what the reward for winning should be, -- (with the help of much appreciated slot revenue (that was supposedly being generated to assist the Harness Racing Industry --- and then, they decide to --- cut back. Did they finally come to the conclusion that they are making too much money, and want/need to spend it elsewhere??

The cities they are located in also benefit greatly from our voluntary taxation - thank you SLOT players of Ontario for your donations!

Not ALL racetrack venues in Ontario are 'created EQUAL', some are better than others, - could it possibly be related to management skills, creativity, and the LOVE of HARNESS racing??
(I don't know - can YOU figure it out!)

Just this past year, Standardbred Canada wanted horsemen to put 5% of their purse money into a marketing account to help promote harness racing because they knew sooner or later slot money would be cut off. The horsemen said no.

Well, it is starting. Will the horsemen see the light? Probably not.

Is anybody really surprised by this and why didn't COSA, OHHA, SBOA see this coming when the rest of did. YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE A TEN YEARS AGO.
As always, a day late and a penny short.
Since day one with the slots invovled it has been about money and how the government can run slots without horse racing.
Didn't mean to be so harsh but someone had to say it.
Greg Parke

Good news. Someday soon, perhaps the gambler will be recognized as a vital source of revenue. Never did like that 26% rake...

I as well a many others have been predicting for a long time now that it would only be just a matter of time beofre the government here and other jurisdictions would begin pulling back on the slot revenues to the tracks. They simply need it for too many other needs and saving racing is not a priority to them. Nor should it be. I ave been saying for a very long time that if racing is to survive it must figure out ways to be self sustainable and not rely on government or slots to bail it out. That being said I agree that racing should be considered for government subsidies just as other businesses are for the sake of saving jobs. It's obvious that racing employs many many people from so many industries associated with racing that if racing were to cease to exist so would a huge number of jobs unfortunately. So from that perspective they are entitled to government assistance in the form of programs that allow racing to sustain itself. That being said, this should be a wake up call NOW to racing if they haven't woken up yet that the only way they are going to survive is to bring back the true fans, the true bettors. Those of us who actually love racing. The only way that will ever happen is if racing begins to finally address on a much more serious level the inconsistencies, the drug use, the lack of driver effort, the boring spectacle that used to be racing. I have said it before harness racing in Ontario is brutally boring. There is no flow whatsoever, ther is a huge percieved lack of driver effort on so many nights, there is a huge perceptions of cheating going on. Just walk inot the grandstand and ask almost any bettor and you will see what I mean. Until these issues racing will simply continue to fall in a downward spiral until it just disappears altogether and I as I have so often stated it will be their own fault for relying on slots instead od improving the product and for failing to take action while there was still time to do so.

Here's how you make up that loss. Put horse racing BACK on T.V. where it belongs, and draw revenue from a LARGER fan base.