The Woodbine Entertainment Group officially closed it backstretch dormitories at Mohawk Racetrack earlier this week. The cost-cutting measure once again shines the light on how the termination of the successful slots-at-racetracks program has devastated those in Ontario racing industry. This case in particular has shown how grooms, regarded by virtually everyone as some of the hardest working members of the industry, have received quite a blow.
An article by Dave Briggs in the Guelph Mercury delves into the situation and explains how lifelong, specialized grooms are now left without many options at all.
In his report, Briggs spoke with former Mohawk backstretch superintendant Dana Keyes, who painted a verbal picture of the state of the once-bustling Campbellville, Ont. stable area which officially closed its dormitories on Wednesday (May 1).
Describing the backstretch as now being "a desert," Keyes discussed the plight of some of the highly specialized grooms that lived in the Mohawk dorms right up to the bitter end.
Keyes speaks of a pair of life-long grooms that are now looking toward the possibility of living in shelters; others that are forced to possibly move in with their elder parents, and, in one case, a groom that has been uprooted after having lived in the Mohawk backstretch for almost five decades.
“We have one guy who is in his late 60s who has lived at a racetrack for 47 years,” Keyes said.
Speaking on behalf of some of the middle-aged, highly specialized grooms, Keyes rhetorically asked, “What do they do now? Do they go back to school? They really are experts in their field. It’s something they’ve done their whole life. You won’t find a better (horse) caretaker than those guys, but if there’s nowhere to live and there’s no jobs, or the jobs that they can find don’t cover the rent, then what?”
(With files from the Guelph Mercury)