The Woodbine Entertainment Group’s application to the Ontario Racing Program (the Program) to create a Premier Level allowance of 25% for three-year-olds has been permitted
. The application also requested that the allowances for two and three-year-olds be applied, as they have in the past, to the purse earnings of the horse as opposed to the condition of the class.
The Implementation and Monitoring (IM) Group agreed that a change to the Program was warranted for the following reasons:
- Under the Program’s current allowances for purse earnings, the age allowance for two-year-olds is 50% for the Premier Cards only. WEG indicated limiting the allowance to only two-year-olds is impacting on their ability to attract the same horses when they are three-year-olds.
- WEG proposes that a 25% allowance will provide these horses with more opportunities to race and encourage horses to move from the Signature card to the Premier card.
- The allowance of 50% for two-year-olds racing a Premier card only helps later in the racing season and only if that horse is racing against older horses. Providing a three-year-old allowance would increase the number of three-year-olds entering the Premier cards.
After reviewing the application and business case, the IM Group recommended the change to the Implementation Criteria to the Director, to add an allowance of 25% for three-year-olds at Premier Cards. The Group did not, however, recommend that the allowance to be applied based on the earnings of the horse, as this is contrary to conditions now in place across all tracks in Ontario. In order to receive approval for this change, WEG will need to demonstrate how the allowance based on the earnings of the horse would benefit the Ontario Racing Program.
Following consideration of the application and the recommendation of the IM Group, the Director approved the change to the Ontario Racing Program, effective immediately.
The mandate of the IM Group is to implement and monitor the elements of the Ontario Racing Program and to ensure the Program is flexible enough to change, where the need for change is demonstrated and determined to be warranted.
For more information, please contact:
Implementation and Monitoring Group
Wendy Hoogeveen, Industry Development and Support
Bill Fines, Mike Wilson, Rob McKay, Ryan Dupuis, Kerry Wright
(416) 213‐0520
[email protected]
Flexibility only to WEG. May
Flexibility only to WEG. May I remind you the ORP stands for Ontario Racing Plan, not WEG Racing Plan. All flexibility referred to in this and other articles seems to be only in proposals and applications by WEG not other Grassroot or smaller racing venues. There comes a time that this group needs to open their spectrum of focus outside of Toronto and look at the B tracks within Ontario.
The industry understands that there needs to be a division between classes and agrees the higher class horses should compete for higher purses. However, to make it sustainable the horses must be given the opportunity to advance through the ranks and progress to the level of racing offered at the WEG racetracks. The horsemen need to be given the opportunity to show constant improvement of their racing stock by advancing through the Grassroots. They don't just wake up one day and say - I think this week we'll race at Woodbine.
It is time to allow the smaller tracks in Ontario the same opportunity for growth and ability to proceed with their business plans by allowing them to offer a better product to their patrons.
With recent denial of application to Signature Level purses to Hanover raceway, the ORP continually appears to be shutting the door on Ontario Grassroot Tracks. You are single handedly closing the door on perhaps the most important part of this industry. Perhaps a log of recent proposals and conclusions will shine a light on the fact that more consideration needs to be given to the smaller tracks within Ontario.
Hanover Raceway has recently appealled the decision - please re-consider this application. Please re-evaluate your stand on the Grassroots program in Ontario, perhaps gain a better understanding of how important the Grassroots program is, and how it fits in to a horses advancement to the ranks offered at WEG.
This part of the industry is far more important to the survival of harness racing in Ontario then it is receiving credit for. It is time for the ORP to understand this.