Wagering drops by 15 per cent at Fort Erie Race Track
Wagering is down 15 per cent at the Fort Erie Race Track this year and officials at the local border oval attribute the decrease to a policy in place up the Queen Elizabeth Way at Woodbine.
“That’s what it comes down to,” said chief operating and financial officer Tom Valiquette at Saturday night’s Circle the Course event, an annual fundraiser that supports Community Outreach Program Erie, one of Fort Erie’s food banks.
The Toronto track has introduced a new policy regarding the stabling of horses at its facility. Initially, all horses stabled at Woodbine could only race at other tracks once a season, unless that race had a purse over $20,000.
This results in bettors spending less because the smaller the field in a race, the less money there is in the pot that could end up in their pockets.
Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates, who was also at Saturday’s event, has been petitioning the province with Mayor Wayne Redekop for action on the policy being handed down from Woodine and impacting Fort Erie.
“It’s absolutely wrong and we have got to get it fixed,” said Gates, who has had multiple meetings with Minister of Finance Charles Sousa on the matter, most recently when he took a tour of the track about three weeks ago.
Both Woodbine and Fort Erie are on the receiving end of more than $400-million in subsidies from the provincial government, a deal struck in 2014 that expires and expires in 2021.
Since 2010, the Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium, the non-profit organization that started operating the facility in the same year, has received $7.9 million annually from the province.
Program sales, as well as food and beverage figures, have been steady all year during the track’s Twilight racing, which starting earlier this month until the end of the month – runs on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
Valiquette, along with Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium chief executive officer and Fort Erie Economic Development and Tourism Corporation general manager Jim Thibert, say the crowds have consisted of many new faces from other parts of Niagara.
“They’re coming from all over,” said Thibert on Saturday.
Last year’s Prince of Wales race card brought in more than $2 million in wagering, a record for the track. This year’s signature event, the day that hosts the second jewel in the sport’s Canadian Triple Crown, also saw a slight decrease, about three per cent for on-track wagering – despite estimates of up to 10,000 people in attendance.
Racing continues Tuesdays and Saturdays with a post-time of 4:20 p.m. until Aug. 29 before racing switches back to the 1:20 p.m. fall post time on Saturdays and Tuesdays in September.