Horse owners welcome Kawartha Downs news
New deal will keep harness racing going for another five years.
The news of a five-year deal to keep harness racing at Kawartha Downs was welcome news to horsepeople.
Infrastructure minister and Haliburton Kawartha LakesBrock MPP Laurie Scott confirmed Thursday a five-year funding enhancement by the province to insure all 15 Ontario racetracks can continue coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kawartha Downs also has a five-year agreement to keep a casino.
Ontario Harness Horse Association area rep Dave Gibson said it provides much needed stability.
“We can kind of plan ahead,” said Gibson. “We purchased horses this past fall we hope to race this year and again next year. We think ahead like that. Having a five-year deal will ease the tensions of what will be next.”
Kawartha Downs almost closed in 2013, went into receivership in 2017, took a last-minute deal to salvage the 2018 season, faced the possibility of losing its casino in 2019 and was sold to Romspen Investments in 2019.
“It’s been crazy,” said Gibson. “Imagine trying to run a business the way things are up and down and all over the place and not knowing from year to year whether there’s going to be racing. There are other racetracks in the province but living here and stabling here, it means with Kawartha racing I don’t have to travel across the province to race on a weekly basis. It certainly helps to have a local racetrack with a five-year agreement.”
Gibson said it’s good to hear the province will provide an additional $3 million per year for five years to assist Ontario’s 15 racetracks through the pandemic.
“Every little bit helps,” said Gibson. “We’re not the only industry or people affected by the COVID. I don’t know what it will translate to the horsepeople themselves in purse earnings or anything like that. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
One negative is the track was only awarded 18 race dates for 2021 by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) after being awarded 21 in recent years. The pandemic forced cancellation of four of 21 dates last season.
“Unfortunately, that’s determined by Ontario Racing and we don’t have any control over that. The racetrack doesn’t really either. I’m certain they applied for more dates. I guess with the allocation of purse money that’s the allocation they’re going to give us and we’ll just have to deal with that.
“It’s certainly (disappointing). We could probably race a little later in the fall and maybe start a little earlier in the spring and it would certainly help around the area. Kawartha Downs is one of the racetracks that in a normal situation, before the COVID, where there was always a good crowd and the handle was very respectable for ontrack betting.
“Everything was going well. It would be nice if we could continue that.”
There’s been a bit of confusion about when Kawartha Downs will hold races in 2021.
The AGCO announcement stated KD will race Sunday at 4 p.m., a departure from their traditional Saturday dates.
Jim Huck, KD’s manager of harness racing, said the track did initially apply for Sunday races.
“At the end of last year our general manager Kevin (Goetz), along with the rest of us, thought it would be best to possibly move to Sunday in order to use the facility for concerts or stock car racing etc. (on Saturday),” said Huck.
When they got feedback that some of their regular horsepeople couldn’t make it on Sundays,
“If we race on Sunday it will drop our entries down significantly,” he said.
Huck said they changed course.
“We have put in a letter to Ontario Racing saying we want to return to Saturday races at 4 p.m.,” he said.
They’re awaiting AGCO confirmation.
“There shouldn’t be a problem. If there is, I’d be very surprised,” said Huck.