Tracks to remain empty at Marquis Downs

SASKATOON Marquis Downs will sit silent this summer. No horses, jockeys, trainers or hopeful bettors.

The local thoroughbred track was officially shut down for the year on Tuesday, the latest casualty in a long string of COVID -19-related cancellations.

“This was the 51st year for the track. We’ve always had an opening day,” said Rick Fior, Marquis Downs’ manager of racing.

“We’ve run 50 consecutive years and, all of a sudden, we’re going to miss a year. That’s the disappointing part for me. In one sense, it’s hard to accept. But when you sit down and look at the overall situation, and why we’re not running, then I can accept it a lot easier.”

Fior said two key elements forced the shutdown.

On the track side, most of the jockeys remain stuck in Jamaica and in Trinidad and Tobago, unable to leave their countries for Saskatoon.

On the crowd side, social-gathering regulations would have made it difficult to sustain the season financially.

“With social gatherings at a low number, we’d be forced to race with no fans,” Fior said.

“I know other tracks are doing that, but those other tracks have either casino or slot revenues, and they’re able to do that. We don’t have any of that here. We need the admissions and program sales, we need the food and beverage, we need the commissions on every wager that’s bet at Marquis Downs ... we need all that to operate. And with no fans, we would have none of that.”

So the five-furlong oval, which celebrated a half-century of continuous operation last season, will temporarily halt.

Fior said it will give some operators a chance to move their horses to other western Canadian tracks.

The Marquis Downs season was recently postponed to July, before the final decision came Tuesday.

“It just wasn’t feasible. There was absolutely no way we could operate,” Fior said.

“I know the horsemen are disappointed. The horse owners are disappointed. But when you look at it, every major event in Saskatoon has been cancelled this summer, including the Ex. They just cancelled all of Canada West football; university sports are cancelled, and they don’t usually start until September. The writing ’s been on the wall for a while. It’s not surprising. Disappointing, yes. But not surprising.”

As for the track’s future prospects, Fior said he’s confident they’ll survive the pandemic, and hopefully have a full season in 2021. But check back later, he added.

“We won’t know that until later on in the year,” he said.

“There’s no cost to running Marquis Downs because it wasn’t open, so I think we’ll be okay. But I wouldn’t be able to tell you exactly until later on in the fall or closer to the end of the year.”