This issue of TROT is our annual Stallion Issue, and one of the things that makes it unique are the pages and pages of stallion and breeding statistics that can’t be found anywhere else.
We provide these stats in an effort to help breeders decide on potential matings for their broodmares, and I’ve been told by many mare owners that the numbers on those pages are very much appreciated and helpful.
As important as these stats are to both us and many of our readers however, and as much as we appreciate our IT Manager, Janet Cookson, helping us research them, there are two other pages of numbers that she also supplies us with every year for this issue, and this year - to me at least - I think a couple of those numbers are much more important than anything else in this magazine.
On pages 26 and 27 of this issue you’ll find figures for 2025 Purse Distribution by track, and 2025 Mutual Handle by track, compared to the five years previous.
On page 26 you’ll see that in the two years from 2023 to 2025, Canadian purses were up approximately $6.8 million. Everything must be good then - right?
Not so fast.
On page 27, you’ll see what I believe to be - BY FAR - the most important stat in this statistics-heavy publication… and the BIGGEST PROBLEM is that absolutely none of our “leaders” seem to be even talking about it. That’s what scares me the most.
The numbers that I’m referring to are the ones that show the total handle on Canadian Standardbred Racing, in the two years from 2023 to 2025, has dropped an astounding $97 million! And like I just said, nobody seems to be talking about it, or attempting to stick their finger in the dyke to try and stop the leak.
Hell, that’s not a leak - it’s a bloody gusher.
If Canadian national hockey teams - men’s, women’s or junior - go too long on the world stage without winning a number of gold medals, people are calling for a hockey summit, because to them it means that we must be doing something wrong in the way we’re developing players.
Horse racing is a sport based on one thing - gambling.
We continually try to call ourselves a world leader in the sport, but our mutual handle has dropped from $646.3 million in 2023 to just $549.2 million, only two years later, and nobody is even really talking about a plan to reverse this catastrophic trend?
What’s wrong with us?
If almost any other business saw revenues drop at this alarming rate - and in essence, a percentage of our handles are our revenues - summits would be held, heads would roll, plans would be developed and changes would be made.
Some people out there, who sadly have no idea, will try to tell you that handle doesn’t really matter anymore anyway, in Ontario at least, because of our purse contract with the provincial government. Well, for the umpteenth time in this space, please let me remind you that if you believe that you’re wrong.
The Ontario Sires Stakes - possibly the best program in North America - gets its purse money based on handle.
In Quebec, when it comes to purses, they get no government help whatsoever, so their entire purse structure depends on handle.
In British Columbia, on November 25, 2025, their provincial government revealed that the support racing previously received from expanded gaming will cease in 2026.
Have you turned on your television lately? If your answer is ‘Yes’ then you’re probably well aware that almost every commercial on TV these days is advertising legal sports wagering opportunities. And yes, legalized sports wagering is a big reason for our recent decline in handle.
Does that mean we’re just going to give up? An industry that prides itself on being full of hard-working, never-say-die individuals?
Where’s our leadership? What are we planning to do to combat this? Where’s our f#$king summit?
In this very issue, we’ve dedicated 16 pages of content, to tell you the stories about eight of our sport’s hard-working caretakers. The people that everyone says never get their due for how hard they work.
Personally, I’ve spent some early January mornings at Classy Lane Training Centre recently. In fact, I jogged a handful of horses there just this morning, in -20 degree temperatures. The track at Classy Lane was loaded with horses and horsepeople today, despite the frigid weather - just as I’m certain was the case at training centres, farms and backstretches nationwide.
Not that I needed one, but my visits to Classy Lane have nonetheless served as a great reminder, as to just how many men and women are out there working hard, seven days a week, and 365 days a year, in an effort to put on the show known as Canadian Standardbred racing - and to put on a show worthy of the gambling dollars that the business requires to survive.
My question is this: Who out there right now is working on their behalf?
Dan Fisher
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