Harness Racing British Columbia has opted to not support a proposed Standardbred meet at Desert Park in Osoyoos, B.C. this summer. The decision means that the prospect of live harness racing at the facility is dead for 2016.
News of the proposed meet came last month. The Desert Park Exhibition Society had applied to host a harness racing meet at the Desert Park racetrack this summer in coordination with Harness Racing B.C. The racing schedule would have included Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon cards between June 18 and July 10.
An article by the Osoyoos Times explains that the Gaming Policy & Enforcement office would only approve the races if the HRBC board granted its approval to do so, which it has not.
The Osoyoos Times article has cited HRBC President Heather Davies as saying that the board had no choice but to vote against the proposal, due to concerns regarding insurance, cost, and the number of horses that were committed to race, which was characterized as ‘steadily declining.’ Davies was cited as saying that 60 horses had been committed to race when the process began, but that number has since shrank to 33.
“We’ve been fighting about this now for almost a year and it just finally came down to now we can’t support this, because we just don’t know,” Davies was quoted as saying. “I’m never happy to cut more race days, but I was terribly worried that it would be a money pit and that it would negatively impact our racing.”
Davies was cited as saying that it would cost at least $10,000 a day to run the event and that many were not convinced that those funds could be made back.
Desert Park Exhibition Society President Mike Valliere has been quoted as saying that there is no hardship over HRBC’s decision. He also stated that his organization would have ‘bent over backward’ in order to make the proposal become a reality.
Valliere was quoted as saying, “from our part, there was no hardship. In fact we were prepared to help them out completely. Our team here was bending over backwards to get it into place. We basically would have had to donate most of our summer just to be here for them and we were prepared to do that.”
Ross Sharpe, an HRBC board member that was a big supporter of the proposal, has indicated that it is unfortunate the meet will not take place. “I don’t have a negative word for anyone in Osoyoos, believe me. It’s a great facility down there,” he said. “It’s a golden opportunity. It’s sad we couldn’t pull it off.”
It is expected that the Desert Park Exhibition Society will now seek to land live Thoroughbred meet for this summer at the Desert Park racetrack.
(With files from the Osoyoos Times)
Related Stories