Published:
November 25, 2008 09:35 am EST
Unhappy with a drastically reduced racing calendar and a purse offer for all Quebec tracks of just $3.9 million next year, provincial horsemen have voted not to renew their contract with Attractions Hippiques for racing at Hippodrome de Montreal.
The current contract expires Sunday, November 23 -- the last racing day on the 2008 schedule and possibly the last ever in Montreal.
The decision was taken at a meeting Monday in Montreal attended by 350 horsemen.
(A Paul Delean exclusive for Trot Insider)
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Je suis attriste car une
Je suis attriste car une autre de nos institution disparait.bravo a jean charest et son ami le senateur massicotte car leur plan a ete planifie et realise avec un immense succes. Ils ont reussis ou plusieurs auparavant ont echoues a faire disparaitre et mourir a petit feu une communaute de gens amoureux et passionnes de leur sport.
Il semble que seul les canadiens de montreal vont survivre dans les annees a venir au quebec.bonne chance a tous les intervenants des courses attelees et bon courage.
I hope this will mean they
I hope this will mean they have to shut down the slots
The Province of Quebec has
The Province of Quebec has shown an insensitivity to the the obvious negative impact of their Casino policy and not linking the gambling dollar to race track viability.
The problem has been further exagerated by a lack of leadership and vision on the part of all of the principals including the horsemen.
Tom
Amazing! From the glory
Amazing! From the glory days of the Prix d'Ete to this state of affairs in about 20 years. It's an awesome demonstration of incompetence and the dangers of mixing self-serving political agendas with business.
From the ill-conceived policies of refusing to pay non-Quebec based breeders the breeders bonuses, to the insanity of the Broodmares from France program. Clearly, the further the industry got into bed with the Quebec government the worse it became. Harness racing was simply not sufficiently "Quebecois" to matter.
The Quebec government and the Quebec horsemen developed and implemented policies to keep non-Quebecers out of the industry in Quebec. This was done looking inward with its typical protectionist approach, and a total lack of understanding of how the industry works. Outside Quebec, industry problems were being solved.
But in Quebec, every solution to a problem had to be a unique "made in Quebec" solution. Lessons learned elsewhere were not applied because they came from outside Quebec.
In reply to Amazing! From the glory by Anonymous (not verified)
''Quebec sait
''Quebec sait faire''.......yeah right !!! In our case all Quebec did is kill our livelihood.
i went back home for my
i went back home for my familly now it'sbeen worst then everthe purse are going down and down i really dont thing what this guy is doing to all these horsemans and there familly, nobody can live like that, could somebody tell me on which planet this guy is thank you and good luck to all the horsemans in quebec. pascal