Yesterday's announcements of the not-for-profit organization to run New Brunswick harness racing and the VLT deal that has been struck has obviously caught mainstream media attention in the region, with multiple outlets running stories today.
"The way it is now, the individual tracks have been responsible for their own operations. With a limited number of horses and the problems with co-ordinating racing dates between the tracks, it really hasn't worked," The Daily Gleaner quoted Brent Briggs, general manager of Fredericton Exhibition Ltd., as saying.
"We've been saying for years it's a dying industry. Now with one group responsible for running the entire operation province-wide, there's a reason to be optimistic that it (harness racing) can be revived."
"It's the best thing to happen for horse racing in New Brunswick in the past 200 years," Ross Galbraith, chairman of the New Brunswick Horse Racing Industry Association, was quoted as saying in the Telegraph Journal.
"The harness racing industry has a long tradition in the history of the province," Finance Minister Victor Boudreau -- who also mentioned that the industry creates jobs -- was quoted as saying in an article by Times & Transcript.
"It is an industry seeing some tough times, competing with the likes of casinos and online Texas Hold 'em and so on."
The articles can be read by clicking on the links listed below.