What Now?

Amidst the province’s racing upheaval, three Ontario drivers share their hopes (and fears) about the day after tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that.

Interviewed by Kimberly Fisher / Photographed by Matt Waples

How do you feel about the situation right now in Ontario? I know that’s a big question. But today — what are your thoughts on the future of racing in this province?
James: I keep hoping for good news, but it doesn’t seem to be coming. Hopefully something will come that’s somewhat positive and can keep us in Ontario or working with horses.

Is there anything on the horizon that looks positive, or are you feeling pretty down?
James: There are some things. But it’s still not going to be the same as it was. There’s already been tracks closed and they’re talking about more tracks closing.
Trevor: Well even if it somehow turned out that we got half of what we had... You might have less tracks and race less, but at least you could keep going instead of folding right up.

But what is racing going to look like in a couple of years... what do you picture?
Trevor: The way it looks there’s only going to be a few tracks able to survive. They’re not all going to be able to work. It’s impossible. So you’re going to end up with three or four racetracks and they’re going to race three or four days a week and that’s going to be it. It doesn’t look very good. There sure won’t be the horses here there used to be.
J.R.: Right now I feel like there won’t be any way to make a living next year or in two years. Unless something really positive happens. But if not, which it doesn’t look like it will, it’s just going to be sort of a hobby. I mean, there’s no other way to look at it. That’s the way it is.

In your mind, what’s the best case, realistic scenario looking forward?
James: Obviously it’s going to be different. We’re not going to have what we have right now — the same dates, the same money, the same tracks open. But in the best case scenario you could still make a living driving here.
J.R.: Yes, the best case scenario would be to be able to keep going that way. To keep being able to compete every day and make money out of it. That would be the best case scenario.

So is the worst case scenario that there would be no racing? Or is even half the amount of racing essentially a worst case scenario because it couldn’t sustain you?
Trevor: No racing would be the worst. If you lose racing, well, you have no job, right? You gotta do something. So... do you want fries with that?
James: Yup. The worst case scenario is really bad. I’d say a lot of people... a lot of the drivers even, they don’t even have any education. So what can you do? I guess I could probably still be a male stripper. [NOTE: joking?] Yeah, worst case scenario is really bad. Hopefully it doesn’t come down to that. You know, there are lots of drivers with a wife, kids, house, horses, farms... there’s a good chance they’re going to lose everything. Lose their job, anyway, and then how do you pay for everything? I’m lucky, I’m still young. I’ve got somewhat of an education.

A stripping education?
James: [laughing] Yeah, I’ve always got that to fall back on. But no, really... I went to high school in P.E.I. and then took a year of marketing and advertising at Holland College. But I never finished. So I’d have to go back for a little bit if that’s the road I chose.

Have you considered leaving Ontario, harness racing, or horses altogether?
James: I would say every single person has thought that. There’s nowhere really to go. It’s not going to be long before the Americans start writing that American-owned, American-trained, American-driven horses get preference. That’s a scary thought... that if you do go down, maybe they won’t let you drive. And it’s not easy to get papers and a green card and everything to go down there.
J.R.: Oh yeah, me and my wife... we talk about it all the time. My wife is really important to me and my kids too, so it’s definitely on my mind. I’ve been here 10 years now and I’ve loved my 10 years, but if Ontario’s not happening anymore, well, it’s not happening anymore. I’m going to fight all I can to keep going another 10 years at least, but we definitely have plans.

Are there other jobs you can do or would you try racing somewhere else first?
J.R.: Well I’m from Quebec City, she’s from New Brunswick, so Ontario was all about competing at a high level. Hopefully we are getting to do this and hopefully there’s more money for at least 2013. But if not... it’s about flow, so I’m not sure yet. My wife works for Air Canada — she has a very good job here.

You’d probably be looking to get out of horses rather than out of Ontario?
J.R.: Well I’m always going to be around horses, and hopefully there is going to be racing wherever I end up, if it’s not Ontario. But I may not be able to make a living 12 months a year at it.

Did you go to school? Do you have any other skills, hobbies... anything else you could go towards?
J.R.: No school. Whatever I do, I’m going to end up competing for sure. This is what I do. Competing is what I love to do. I’m not going to go find a job at $17/hour or in an office or anything like that, that’s for sure.
Trevor: I don’t know. I might race maybe a bit in Buffalo. I’ve got my papers and that. I own property in Tennessee, so I say worst case scenario I just sell everything and move there. It’s cheap living. I can survive there doing something. I don’t know what.

Are there things you do on the side that you could pursue as an occupation? Hobbies?
Trevor: Drinking and fishing.

Pays well I hear.
James: Better catch a lot of fish.
Trevor: Least I can live off the fish, right? I won’t starve to death. It’s good for you.

So you’re saying... when the time comes, you’ll have to figure that out. So how do any of us know when the time comes? At what point will you have to say — I’m out?
Trevor: I think eventually they’re going to have to tell you something, right? Like ‘this is what you’re getting’ or ‘this is the way it’s going to be.’ Then you got a certain amount of time and you gotta figure out what you’re going to do. If you work in a factory and they close the factory, they don’t give you six months notice. They just come in and say you got a week or two weeks. That’s it — your job’s done. The only thing with this job is that you don’t have a severance package or anything. You had to make your own. So you still have to feed your horses. It will really hurt a lot of trainers with all these horses. If there’s no racing, the owners are going to haul them and go to the States. You can’t blame them. The owners and breeders are the ones that will really get hurt. They’ve got these farms — that’s a lot of money right there. It’s tough on them.

But is there a line in the sand? When it gets to that, you have to say, enough is enough?
Trevor: If you can’t make money at it, there’s no sense doing it. You don’t do it for fun.
James: A lot of the small stables too... you know, a lot of people do kind of do it for a hobby. They have three or four and they just make enough to get by. What are they going to do? The trainers, the breeders... they’re going to be slaughtered up here.

I know this is a tough question to ask a group of horsemen, but can you try describing how you felt when you heard the news? What sort of emotions have you been experiencing over the last few months? Are you angry, distraught, sad, overwhelmed?
J.R.: We felt pretty bad at the time. We felt like throwing up when we got the news. There’s not much to look positive for, unless something major changes... but still, me and my wife, we try to be positive. The only positive to all of this is that we’ve been so lucky. I know you didn’t race as much as me [James] and I didn’t race as much as you [Trevor] but I’ve been here almost 10 and a half years now. The only positive is that we built something, me and my wife, because of all this slots money. We built a life. It’s been good. So you can’t just feel sorry for yourself. Right away it felt like you wanted to die, but life goes on. My wife is super supportive, so that helps. And she has a good job. That also helps. We’ll get through it. We’ll find solutions.
Trevor: I was kind of disappointed I guess. When you’ve done it your whole life... it’s all you know. I don’t have an education or anything. It’s all I’ve ever done.

Disappointed in what? That the government didn’t get it? That the public didn’t get it? That the industry hadn’t done more?
Trevor: I think the government didn’t get what it involves. Like how many people’s jobs are at stake. It’s more than us drivers. It’s... like they say — there are 60,000 people affected. And some who’ve got farms and all that — which I can’t see them keeping. I would think they’re going to lose it. I mean I could have been in that too. I was always involved with Henry Stables, but I got out of that before this happened... I got rid of my share of nearly 30 horses. And we were going to buy a farm. I was going to buy a farm and start a barn and all that. I put an offer in on a place actually, and didn’t get it. And a month later this happens. It was in March, right around my birthday that we put an offer in and we didn’t get it first time... and then this came about. So we just rent stalls now. I’m not buying a place.

Okay James... your turn now to talk about your feelings.
James: I don’t have any feelings.... No. I was mad I guess, upset. I’m not going to say it was harder on me. For sure it wasn’t. But JR and Trevor, they’re established drivers in Ontario. They’ve got thousands of wins or whatever they’ve got. But myself, I was just starting to get my foot in the door... Just learning the ropes and starting to drive more and have some success. And now if I do choose to go somewhere else, it’s gotta happen all over again. You have to start with nothing, from the bottom... maybe be lucky to get one or two drives. It’s a real reality check. I hope it doesn’t come to that. But what do you do? Hopefully I can survive.
Trevor: That’s the thing too. When you go to another spot, you’re going to start at the bottom again, you know? It’s tough, when you’ve been up here [he gestures] and then you’ve got to go back down to here. It’s hard.
James: I don’t mind looking at the program and seeing my horses at 3-1. I didn’t like it at first when they were at 40-1. Not fun. It’s not fun driving slow horses. It’s a lot more fun than not driving any horses though.

Does racing right now still feel like business as usual? Is there a different atmosphere now?
Trevor: More or less. People have kind of calmed down. Before it was a big thing but it’s kind of sunk in now. They’re just waiting to see what happens, I think. Nobody seems to know anything right now. I think everybody’s just doing what they always did.
James: Yeah, I think right now it’s business as usual. It hasn’t slowed. There’s still lots of claiming going on and lots of people buying horses. Everyone is just trying to make as much as they can right now. For us drivers it’s still pretty much the same, because we’re racing almost every day. And so it hasn’t really slowed down yet. I think we’ll get a reality check in a year’s time when we see the purses or see what’s open and see how many drivers are where and what’s what.
J.R.: It’s the same. Everybody is trying to compete hard and win.

Did anybody see it coming?
Trevor: I didn’t.
James: There was always people talking, saying ‘oh... get your money out.’ Mostly older people. Mostly saying that there might not be any racing in five years. But you know, I’ve been hearing that forever. And it’s the same thing over and over. Then, when it finally did come, it was kind of like the earth just exploded. It was like the end of the world. It was really strange.

Even with people talking about the fact that the industry needs to take some money from this purse pool and spend it on marketing, on product development… nobody really thought it would happen?
J.R.: You know, my friend Aaron Waxman was talking a year or two ago about taking money off the purses [SC’s proposed Racing Development & Sustainability Plan]. But you never pay enough attention because you hope it’s not going to happen. I don’t consider myself well informed at all. I mostly learn things from talking to others. And all the stuff on the internet I don’t really read anymore. It’s annoying. So I guess if I really pay attention, there were small ways to see it coming, but it would be more in four or five years that everybody said — not right away. This was... nobody could expect this. It was way too fast. You hear about it that in four or five years it will be happening, even in three years or whatever. But not right away. So I guess no, I didn’t see it coming. Not that way.

No one you knew was talking about this? This wasn’t backstretch conversation?
Trevor: I never really heard anything.
James: Oh no. I’m sure it’s the same everywhere. You know... ‘The end is coming! The end is coming!’ But then when it finally comes, you still didn’t see it coming.

Will you be involved in racing in five years?
James: I hope so. I hope to be able to compete somewhere. That’s what I would like to do. Hopefully it’s in Canada. Hopefully I can make a living doing it. But if not here, I’ll be trying to do it somewhere else.
J.R.: I definitely see myself winning races as well in five years. Somehow, somewhere. Maybe not as many and for nowhere near the money as now... maybe not, but who knows.
Trevor: I’ll be somewhere doing something.
J.R.: You drove how many years now? 30? 25?
Trevor: No, no... what is it... a lot of years.
J.R.: Let’s say you stopped tomorrow forever... it’d be tough.
Trevor: Oh yeah, it would be tough, but I think they’ll always be racing somewhere.
J.R.: There’s always going to be racing. But we won’t be able to make the money we make. That’s the problem. Less money, less days.
Trevor: With James’ stripping career and his driving, he’ll survive.
James: Yeah, I’ll be alright.

Do you expect to be living in Ontario in five years? Or do you expect to be somewhere else?
Trevor: That I can’t answer. I’m not sure.
James: If I can make money in Ontario, then I’ll be in Ontario. If I can’t make money in Ontario, then I’ll be somewhere else.

Do you expect that your kids — or potential kids — will have any racing involvement?
Trevor: Mine won’t. I know they won’t. They don’t really have the interest to do it at all.
J.R.: And you wouldn’t guide them towards it anyway?
Trevor: No, no. The one that’s 16 wants to be a mechanic, and the other is too young to know. He definitely has no interest in horses. He’ll come to the track or that, but he wouldn’t jog one or nothing.
J.R.: No interest from mine, I don’t think. And I don’t want to guide them towards it either. It’s too unstable, and I know every business is not easy, but this is not an easy business to start with anyway.
James: It can be pretty stressful, yeah.
J.R.: And now with this, there’s no way.

James what about your potential future children that you don’t yet have?
James: Ah, ask her [points across the room to his girlfirend]. But kids are kids. They’re going to do what they want to do. It doesn’t matter how much you try and steer them in one direction or the other — if they want to do it, if they don’t want to do it, they’re going to do something else.

Do you have anything else that I should have asked you or that you would like to add?
J.R.: I think we covered it all. It sucks.
James: Yup. We want to race here but...
Trevor: Send donations to P.O. Box... The Trevor Henry Fund.
J.R.: I think that we have to stay positive, eh? It’s tough but what are you gonna do?
Trevor: There’s no sense crying about it because you have no say in it anyway, right? So it’s up to these #$%@s in office and whatever they say goes. And that’s gonna be the way it’s gonna be. It’s pretty sad though when you put your life into something that revolves around what they say. But that’s the way she goes. We have no control whatsoever.
Do you think there is anything that the industry can do? That you guys can do?
James: Keep fighting I guess. Keep praying and fighting.
Trevor: They’re trying I guess... OHRIA and all these organizations. They’re all trying. And that’s all you can do.

Do you feel like they are actually doing anything useful?
James: Oh yeah... OHHA, COSA, OHRIA... they’re all trying. I mean obviously it’s their jobs to. They’re not just sitting back and waiting. They’re working. I know Brian Tropea and them, they’re working day and night. Calling and calling and meeting and calling and setting up everything they can. I know they’re doing everything they can. We’ve just gotta do what they say and hope it works for the best.
J.R.: We’re well represented. The people that know what they’re doing are doing it.