On the heels of this past weekend’s Forest City Yearling Sale, Ontario-based standardbred breeders Ann Straatman and Tammy McNiven have commented in regard to confidence in the provincial horse racing industry.

The comments have come via an article by The London Free Press.

A total of 225 yearlings were sold over the two-day sale for $3,043,000, producing an average price of $13,524. Last year, 257 yearlings were sold for $2,703,300, resulting in an average of $10,519. To read a recap of the first session, click here. To read a recap of the second session, click here. For complete sale results, click here.

“Before there’s going to be any confidence (in the Ontario horse racing industry), people need to see the plan and see how it’s going to be,” said Straatman, of Lucan, Ont.’s Seelster Farms.

Straatman went on to say, “People need to get into it, they need to see what racing opportunities will be and what the purse structure for races will be. Those things still have not been determined in the long term.”

McNiven, of Embro, Ont.’s Twinbrook Farms, said that she believes that uncertainty in the Ontario industry is still pervasive.

“I think people are still very leery,” McNiven said. “They still don’t know what the future holds even though we’ve been told there’s a five-year plan, we still don’t know how the five-year plan looks.”

(With files from The London Free Press)