The Board of the Ontario Division of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society has announced that it has officially signed an agreement with the Ontario Racing Commission which calls for a five-year, $2-million-per-year enhancement of the current breeders awards program, as well as an additional $2 million immediate payment to further benefit those within the province that have participated in the breeding of 2013 Registered Ontario-bred Thoroughbreds.

CTHS Ontario has issued a release on the subject. The contents of that release appear below.

Great Boom For Breeders With The Official Signing Of A $12-Million, Five-Year Program

On October 31, 2013 the Board of the CTHS Ontario unanimously endorsed and then delivered a paper to the Minister of Agriculture/Premier, as well as Messrs.’ John Snobelen, Elmer Buchanan, John Wilkinson and Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mrs. Deb Stark, entitled ‘Measures Necessary To Save The Ontario Thoroughbred Industry.’ Our mission statement was “to identify the means necessary to stabilize and recover the Ontario thoroughbred breeding industry.”

Shortly thereafter we began discussions and negotiations with Mr. Snobelen with the hopes of achieving success towards this end.

Today, Tuesday, June 10th the CTHS has officially signed an agreement, with the Ontario Racing Commission, which calls for a 5 year, $2,000,000 per year enhancement of our current breeders awards program, as well as an additional $2,000,000 immediate payment to further incent those within the province who have participated in the breeding of 2013 Registered Ontario-Breds.

The CTHS is very pleased to announce that our current Breeders Awards will be raised from $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 per year, and will now be paid out across the board (1st, 2nd and 3rd place), from the Allowance level down to the $12,500 Claiming Level. In addition, breeders of horses finishing first in $10,000 Claiming level races and below, will also be rewarded. The previous “cap” of $75,000 per breeder has been increased to $100,000. This program will be retroactively effective from April 12, 2014 (opening day of racing in Ontario).

Please click here to review the detailed Distribution of the enhanced Premier Breeders Awards.

The additional $2,000,000 for distribution is for breeders of Registered Ontario-bred foals of 2013 will be available for dissemination later this month. To be eligible to receive these funds, members must have their foals registered by no later than July 31st, 2014.