The closure of the Dresden Raceway, along with two other area race tracks, is a part of a proposal by four people from the harness racing industry in London, Ontario.
The authors of the 12-page report – Mark Beaven, Mark Horner, Scott McNiven, and Heather Toll – have written the proposal to “help improve the harness racing industry in Ontario.
“These changes primarily revolve around the race dates and purse levels, but also include recommendations for further work to be completed in the regulatory area as well,” the proposal states.
“With the cancellation of the slots at racetrack program, harness racing in Ontario literally transformed overnight. The industry transitioned from purse levels that some could argue allowed inefficiencies to occur, to purse levels that many can argue will cause the industry to suffer a slow and painful death.”
The authors say the current purse levels ($35,000 on average) at grassroots level tracks, like Dresden Raceway, cause horse owners to operate at a loss.
The proposal states owning a racehorse averages at $2,000 per month or $24,000 per year, while only $23,625 could be won if a “horse was to win every race it competes in.”
The authors say the target purse levels would be $85,000 for the signature tracks and $45,000 for the grassroots levels of racing.
In order to make these numbers possible, the proposal is calling for the closure of the Dresden Raceway, the Hiawatha Horse Park in Sarnia and the Leamington track.
The authors point to quality and location for the choosing these three tracks to close.
“Some of the horses racing at these tracks do not present a quality product for our customer base,” the proposal states. “In addition, it is accepted that the majority of the competitive horses racing at these tracks are located closer to the London area.”
The authors say they expect to hear negative feedback about their proposal.
“It is recognized that the decision to eliminate the grassroots racing opportunity may be a political challenge, but it is the authors’ opinion that to continue offering grassroots level racing at these tracks is not in the best interest of the industry at large,” the proposal states.
“The authors expect to hear objection from a small but vocal number of horsemen that are passionate about maintaining a local racing opportunity, but this proposal is looking at what is best for the entire provincial industry and not just one small segment.”
The proposal is calling for these changes to take effect for the 2016 racing season.
Here is a link to the full proposal.
North Kent Coun. Joe Faas told the Sydenham Current he hopes this proposal does not proceed.
“I think the smaller tracks in southwestern Ontario are important to the larger tracks… in terms of training facilities and getting horses ready to go up to the next level of race tracks,” he said.
“Plus the financial impact… it may put a lot of the horsemen out of business, plus the feed companies, it will affect them. The whole horse racing industry has been uprooted since the provincial government made changes to the system. This would be detrimental to our area, and I’m sure to Leamington and Sarnia.”
Faas said there has been a lot of effort made by the Dresden Agricultural Society to keep horse racing going strong in Dresden.
“It may never come back to where it was in the 70s and 80s but at least there was an effort to rejuvenate the racing and a lot of hard work has gone into it… and all of a sudden somebody comes and pulls the rug out from underneath. It’s disappointing.”
Currently 11 race dates have been scheduled to take place at the Dresden Raceway this year.
Reports say representatives with the Ontario Harness Horse Association are not in favour of closing the three tracks.
As of April 1, the Alcohol Gaming Commission of Ontario is taking over the regulation of the horse racing in the province from the Ontario Racing Commission.
Watch for more on this story.
– Photo credit: Nathan Vercauteren
