On Tuesday, February 8, Rideau Carleton Raceway released its second announcement in regard to the state of the judges' gondola at the facility. The track has stated that live racing will be resuming shortly

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On Wednesday, February 2, Rideau announced that it was forced to cancel upcoming cards of live racing due to health and safety concerns raised by the Ontario Racing Commission with regard to the grandstand gondola.

On Friday, February 4, ORC Executive Director John Blakney went on the record as saying “We received an independent report on 31st January about a number of fire and structural hazards associated with the gondola, and based on that report I issued a ruling closing down the gondola for reasons of safety for employees working out of that facility,” the article quotes Blakney as saying.

“The effect of that is, if they don’t have judges — and I won’t allow my employees into what has been assessed as a hazardous and safety issue with the gondola — they have to cancel races.”

Trot Insider received the following release from Rideau at noon today.

After a positive report from the Ontario Ministry of Labour the Ontario Racing Commission has agreed to allow the judges access to the Judges Gondola at Rideau Carleton Raceway. The racetrack will with the cooperation of the NCRHHA start back racing with the Sunday card on February 13th and will have qualifying races on Thursday February 10th.

The Rideau race office has also informed Trot Insider that qualifying times will change to 2:02 for pacers and 2:05 for trotters effective February 8, 2011.

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