My blog this week comes from the recent race application to reduce race dates by something like 100 in 2010

. Fortunately the Race Commission put a moratorium on this request until it could be studied and assess the impact on Harness Racing in Ontario.

Having been an owner, and wagering fan, and now having worked closely with the racetracks I can see everyone’s point of view in the issue.

On one side of the issue I can see how we have too many race dates annually and especially through certain times of the year. The racetracks are losing money each day they present racing. However as an owner and in support of the horseman we need to race horses to get a reasonable ROI and for the horseman to secure employment. On the fans side of the game I do not have the time to attend the races very often and when I am able to attend the races I would like to have more live races. It is much easier to capture one day from the family than try to get 3 or 4 days out at the track.

Why not have race cards with more than 20 Standardbred races on one day. Regularly people can find 6 to 7 hours to get away for a game of golf, so they could be at the races for that long as well. It would also allow for people to attend the races at different times in the day. Attending the races would become more of a focus because there would be less race dates. These longer race dates could be a very exciting simulcast product because there are many days where there is less competition. More action less days!

Let’s look at Flamboro Downs as an example.

Month 	        Average Handle Per Race Day 	Number of Race Dates
Sep 09  	$132K 	                        22
Aug 09  	$162K *** 	                14
Jul 09  	$150K 	                        14
Jun 09  	$154K 	                        12
May 09 	        $146K 	                        19
Apr 09  	$178K 	                        17
Mar 09  	$191K 	                        21
Feb 09 	        $176K 	                        21
Jan 09 	        $182K 	                        23
Dec 08 	        $193K 	                        19
Nov 08 	        $192K 	                        21
Oct 08 	        $180K 	                        23

*** (Includes Confederation Cup and Sires Stakes events so average artificially higher )

So let’s say we close Flamboro from May to October when other racetracks like Grand River and Georgian Downs are racing and their handle typically takes a beating. This would eliminate 104 race dates and over 1,000 races.

To eliminate the problem of losing races we ask Flamboro to race 5 days per week with a daily 12:00 p.m. post time from November to April. With that post time we conduct approximately 24 races per day running from 12:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

What does this achieve?

• Flamboro can cut costs by not being open for 104 race dates.
• While they are open they get to economize on costs by operating for a full 8 hour day.
• Employees become less expensive and easier to manage in a full-time atmosphere.
• Even though race dates are reduced the amount of races are the same so it provides same racing opportunities
• More handle as there is less competition during the months Flamboro is closed and when they are open Grand River closes and the WEG horses move to Woodbine where less people from the west will travel
• A better simulcast product because there are typically more opportunities to get on the simulcast schedule during the week with the 12:00 p.m. post and races ending at 6:30 p.m. before night time cards begin elsewhere.
• Also with less local competition during the months they race maybe Grand River and Georgian would add race dates to their schedule.

There are probably many issues with an idea like this (possibly not enough horses) that I am not privy to enough information to answer. It also may be a crazy idea but with the current state of our sport I think any idea should be explored so I offer this one up for discussion.

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