Confidence Causing Economic Hurdles

Published: October 22, 2015 09:45 am EDT

I read earlier this week that the OLG is looking for "input on a financial model" for our industry from OHRIA and participants.

Well I'm a participant so you can officially call this my "input".

Since 2012 we have seen quite a change.

First our government formed a three-man panel who were going to show a clear path for horse racing's independence and sustainability.

Now we have no panel and no concrete path to anything.

Next we were told that horse racing will be integrated into the OLG's plans moving forward.
Great news, but what is integration?
No one knows apparently.

We will have rebranding with the OLG to include horse racing in its overall banner.

Wait.....No, that's too expensive.

Most importantly we will have one horsemen's group.
Finally reuniting all horsemen with one voice.
I was very happy to put my name forward, even though the group was not promised or granted any apparent power, I felt it was a good way to advocate for change.

First we were supposed to know in August who was on this committee.
Then there was a delay until September, now it appears it's on the shelf indefinitely.

Before we get to financial hurdles or economic obstacles facing our industry, can we please have an explanation of why as horsemen we don't have one voice yet?
When can we expect integration?
And I suppose, WHAT IS INTEGRATION?

Assuming all these get answered we still have the whole issue of horse shortages, investor migration and money shortfalls.

Horse shortages is a tough problem.
At the heart of the problem is a number of things:

1) we don't race for near the same money as our southern counterparts right now and that's not changing any time soon.

2) our province has a serious issue filling high-end claiming races on a regular basis and in turn not just allowing -- but virtually pushing -- owners of these horses to sell or relocate their horses to the U.S.

Look no further than this past weekend's sale or any program from Yonkers, Pocono or virtually every American race track right now to see our horses and our investors racing.

Our inability to regularly fill these classes has ensured their extinction and the money invested in the horses to leave forever in some cases.

3) The exchange rate makes it far to easy and enticing to owners in Ontario to sell or move horses.

This is a very tough problem to solve.

We cannot compete with the purses in New York or other jurisdictions.
So rather than attempting to boost puse money across the board, why not offer incentives or bonuses to Ontario bred and owned horses.

We cannot allow any investors to be lured away any longer.
We need to fill all the claimers we can from $15,000 right up to $50,000 or higher.

We know who the owners and trainers who purchase these horses for the most part are. If you need to mix in condition horses for a while, then do so.
But not at a gross disadvantage to the claimer.
The fields have to be competitive for all.

I've proposed multiple times that we index all horses in Ontario making it as easy and streamlined as possible to figure out what horses we have in Ontario and what types of horses we need so people can acquire them.

People will invest here and continue to if they know their horses will get a chance to race every week in competitive fields.
The fact is they don't.
There is no confidence that you can get your horses raced every week and even less of a chance that there will be evenly matched fields.

Don't take my word for it, ask the owners.
They are around all week but likely in the States watching their horses on the weekend.
Give them a call on Tuesdays.

The problems we have are fixable.
The plans the original panel set forth are attainable, look at rise in wagering in WEG, Western Fair, Grand River.

A horsemen's group would make it easier for racetracks to fill competitive fields because there would be an open dialogue.
Horses could be acquired and a strong product assembled.

Could we actually build OHR (Ontario Horse Racing), I don't mean online or in programs or a dusty closet at Carleson Court, I mean an actual tangible building with people working in it.
We could set up advisory groups of gamblers, trainers, breeders, and drivers to ensure we have the best product in the world.

You could have groups set up to meet with investors or at the very least search them out and approach them.
Find out if and how we could make investment more palatable to the average person?

The fact is that we have been playing dead for three years and if this mentality continues in the future we won't be playing any longer.

I could stay quiet and hope and pray like and pretend that everything will be OK.
The fact is it won't.
If we can't slow, stop and reverse this trend of migration of our horses and investors' money across the border we will end up like the band playing on the Titanic, nowhere to go and nothing to do but play music until the end.

I really hope OHRIA can put fourth a helpful business model with the OLG.
The things mentioned in this blog, they're on us.
If we can't fix these issues, they needn't put fourth a plan at all. There will be nothing to save.


The views presented in Trot Blogs are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Standardbred Canada.

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