Published:
October 25, 2011 11:10 am EDT
On Tuesday, October 25 the Ontario Racing Commission released a Notice to the Industry regarding the 'positive efforts' at Georgian Downs
.
The notice states that the track has posted increases in daily purses and entries since August.
The notice goes on to state that, 'Working closely with the Implementation and Monitoring (IM) Group, Georgian Downs is rebounding from a spring filled with the challenges of reduced horse supply, dropping entries and lower purses.'
To view a copy of the notice, click here.
(With files from the ORC)
To whom it may concern: I
To whom it may concern:
I just read the release by Mr Wilson and to say that the facts have been exaggerated is the best I can give.
1)The purses were more 5 years ago so how can we be, your words "Bluntly" be increasing? Increasing from Barrie raceway? We have been on the decline in every area of racing ever since the former owners sold it to GCGC.
2)You failed to mention that we are sitting with over 4 million is our purse acct(Just Georgian Downs) and another $700,000 this year will more the likely put us over 5 million (Estimates)
3)How is it that our purses are only in the $70,000 range when we are to be at a min of $85,000 ? Is it that hard to figure out?
4)Georgian Downs spends 10's of millions building a new casino with another 1600 machines and we drop the purses so we don't take horses away from WEG.
5)Slots were permitted at race-tracks to support the agriculture surrounding our industry, I know for a fact that a large percentage of people - I'd say 80% of the participants - are just hanging on by their finger nails and how this supports Barrie businesses is beyond me.
6)The purse money is the "HORSEMANS", it is what we agreed to when the slots for racing deal was signed.
7)If you live in Barrie or make your living at the racetrack then you should be outraged at this release ..In all due respect Mr Wilson, do you actually believe what you released? I take it as an insult.
8) I wonder how you would take to the OLG walking in and saying we have a plan and all judges will now make close to 40% less then you did yesterday and we will tell you later when we figure it out. Personally I think all people who make their living from Harness racing forget that if the horses go, we all go ..You included (Except you will have a pension)
I could go on and on, but to be frank (sorry frank :) your plan and execution sucks. (Nothing personal Mike, generalization of the brutal turn of Ontario horse-persons events) I await the backlash because of this but don't really care anymore. This is beyond crazy.
Sincerely & respectively :
Daniel W Clements