OMAFRA's Elmer Buchanan offered Trot Insider an update on the tracks that have not yet to come to terms with the Ontario government's transition panel.

"Hiawatha's still in play, Sudbury's still in play," said Buchanan while at Kawartha Downs on Saturday night. "I believe that [next week] I'm going to Sudbury with one of my friends John [Snobelen or Wilkinson] to talk to them."

Buchanan couldn't offer an update the status of Dresden and Woodstock Raceways but did state that those talks would go through WinRac and not the local agricultural societies.

Trot Insider has also learned that Rideau Carleton Raceway is still in talks with OMAFRA as well and that no deal has been reached despite the fact that the Ottawa-area track is hosting eight cards of live harness racing through the month of April.

Monday marks the end of the slots-at-racetracks partnership between the Ontario government and the horse racing industry. The Liberals established a transition panel in June 2012 to make recommendations on how government could help the horse racing industry adjust. Since then, nine of Ontario's racetracks have come to terms with the government with deals not revealed to the public. Buchanan did say that despite rumblings to the contrary details for these deals with the racetracks will eventually be public knowledge.