Court Rules On Montreal Situation

Published: November 26, 2008 07:12 pm EST

Racetrack operator Attractions Hippiques scored a split-decision victory over horsemen today in Quebec Superior Court.

Judge Chantal Corriveau granted the company’s request for a “safeguard Order” extending the federal and provincial permits and licenses needed to continue receiving daily revenue from video-lottery terminals (VLTs) and bets on simulcast horse races at Hippodrome de Montréal and its teletheatres beyond the current expiry date
of Nov. 30.

By refusing this week to sign a new contract with the company, the horsemen assumed Attractions Hippiques would be forced to lose those revenue streams. Judge Corriveau ruled otherwise. She said the company had met its contractual obligation with a written advisory of its intention to renew sent to the horsemen’s association in October.

She did not, however, grant Attractions Hippiques the full 12-month extension it was seeking. It only holds until Attractions Hippiques (which has been in creditor protection since June) enacts a restructuring plan, or the court rules on three separate legal challenges centering on how its complied with terms of the contract originally signed when it took over Quebec’s four racetracks from the government in 2006. The cases will be heard together, likely in January.

(Trot Insider exclusive by Paul Delean)

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