Perkins: "Elected Assassins" Killing Horse Racing

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Published: February 15, 2013 07:13 pm EST

"If you want to kill a sport once and for all, take a lesson from the Ontario Government. What our elected assassins have done to horse racing is the new template for sport execution."

Following mass layoffs by Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) this week, Toronto Star sports columnist Dave Perkins offered up his take on the Ontario Government's dealings with the horse racing industry in a Friday column, strongly criticizing former premier Dalton McGuinty and former finance minister Dwight Duncan for the decisions they made that have wreaked havoc within the sport and spin-off industries since.

"No one is saying there wasn’t some excess that could have been trimmed here and there, as it could in any industry, but the axings went way past that point," wrote Perkins of the 109 salaried positions and a significant number of hourly positions cut by Canada's largest racetrack operator. "Across Ontario, it continues the trend."

Perkins described McGuinty and Duncan as "two main players who loaded this gun" by ending the Slots-At-Racetracks program and criticized the politicians that have "already fled the crime scene" and "washed their hands" of the issue.

Perkins went on to question the new sustainability model for racing in regards to the deal reached near the end of January between WEG and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs that will allow racing to continue for two more years.

"Woodbine and every other track went begging to the government for money to replace the slots revenue, which province-wide totalled $345 million per year (against the government’s no-risk share of $1.1 billion.) Knowing any possible revenues from a Toronto casino won’t be available for at least two years, the government gave Woodbine a secret amount of cash for 2013 and 2014, but not enough to keep operating at full speed, hence these staff and purse cuts," wrote Perkins. "Other tracks continue to negotiate their deals, while industry sentiments arise to throw the damned slots out into the parking lot snow. (Except that’s exactly what bingo owners want, to get their mitts on the slots themselves.)."

To read the Toronto Star article in its entirety, click here.

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