Sudbury Downs Owner Pat MacIsaac has said that talks with the Province are still ongoing in regard to a 2014 racing season for the northern Ontario raceway.

A report by northernlife.ca has quoted MacIsaac as saying that talks were held as late as Monday morning. “It's still a work in progress,” he was quoted as saying, adding, “there's no final resolution with respect to racing. So we're still working on it, trying to get it going. It's just a matter of how things shake out.”

On Monday, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food formally announced the Province’s five-year plan for the Ontario horse racing which will see $500 million funnelled into the industry. On Tuesday, the Ontario Racing Commission announced its decision in regard to the race-date applications for nine standardbred racetracks.

The article by northernlife.ca has cited MacIsaac as saying that racing at Sudbury in 2014 is not yet a certainty. “We're making progress, but the final question still has to be answered,” he said. “They've come to agreements with racetracks in southern Ontario, most of them, anyway, but we're still working on them for our track here in northern Ontario.

“We don't have enough information yet. That's part of the discussions that are going on, so we can come to a conclusion about the future of racing.”

MacIsaac stated that time is of the essence, stating that the cutoff date for Sudbury’s race season is near.

“We're getting close to that now,” MacIsaac explained. “Tentatively, the end of May would be the start of our race season. So we're running short on time.”

(With files from northernlife.ca)