Officials at Sudbury Downs circulated a press release on Tuesday commending the public comment issued by Ontario Racing Commission Chairman Rod Seiling regarding the cessation of simulcast and teletheatre wagering

in Northern Ontario.

The message from Sudbury Downs management is as follows:

The immediate reopening of our teletheatre market is certainly a position supported by Sudbury Downs and we look forward to the indicated involvement of Executive Director John Blakney in an effort to reach this goal.

Chairman Seiling’s focus on our customer, the racing fan, as the most important component of our business is entirely accurate. Preserving our current customer base while looking for ways to grow our business are key elements to the success and continued operation of Sudbury Downs. The closure of our teletheatres does nothing to promote our industry and threatens to drive away our current customers.

While we have no knowledge regarding the circumstances at other racetracks, we can speak with certainty with respect to the situation at Sudbury Downs. As Chairman Seiling may or may not be aware, on December 18, 2009 during our contract negotiations with the Northern Horsemen’s Association (NHA), we submitted to the NHA, an interim, 120-day contract that addressed all the issues required to allow the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency (CPMA) to authorize the continued operation of our teletheatres. This 120-day contract simply “rolled over” the same terms and conditions from the agreement in place over the last 5 years at Sudbury Downs.

Furthermore, this contract required that if our final, long term contract amended any of the terms of the interim agreement, the amended terms would be applied retroactively to January 1, 2010. Most importantly, this 120-day contract would have allowed for good faith negotiations to continue without forcing the closure of our teletheatres. A copy of our proposed interim contract was provided to the ORC on December 22, 2009.

With a status quo contract offering retroactivity to January 1, 2010 there is no reason for our teletheatres to be closed. We share Chairman Seiling’s interest in seeing our customers properly serviced as soon as possible and will continue to work towards that goal.

For further information please contact Ken Le Drew or Andrew MacIsaac at (705) 855-9001.