Balzac horse racing track inches closer to finish line as thoroughbreds saddle up for start of season
For a tiny hamlet just north of Calgary, Balzac still manages to swing the big hammer and hold the major key when it comes to the future of horse racing in Alberta.
“It’s the lynch-pin issue for the industry,” Northands racing and gaming manager Chris Roberts said of the proposal for a racetrack and entertainment centre in Balzac as part of the CrossIron Mills’ massive retail and entertainment complex.
“It’s critical,” Roberts said at Wednesday’s news conference to launch Friday’s opening day of the thoroughbred racing season in Edmonton.
With Calgary’s Stampede Park not having hosted horse racing for the last five years, thoroughbred racing has been without a major track in southern Alberta. That has forced horse racing in the province to run its major thoroughbred circuit only at Northlands, while the harness horses have been left to race at places like Lacombe, in addition to a winter meeting at Edmonton.
Since Stampede Park’s closure, both thoroughbred and harness racing have lost a lot of owners from southern Alberta.
“It’s been very difficult to race two breeds (thoroughbred and harness) with just one ‘A’ track (Northlands) in the province,” said Roberts.
But with Century Casinos recently loaning the United Horsemen of Alberta (UHA) $13 million, Balzac — the onagain/off-again project which many considered to be a mere pipe dream — appears to finally be close to a reality.
“We’re certainly farther ahead now than ever,” said Rick LeLacheur, chairman of Horse Racing Alberta. “The financing is in place and the land is secured. All this has never happened before.”
All that is really left is to get approval from the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC). A decision is not expected until late this summer.
Century Casinos, which operates out of Colorado and Austria, is well known to the AGLC as it runs one casino in Calgary and another in Edmonton, the latter on Fort Road.
“Finally, there could be a light at the end of the tunnel,” Don Danard, president of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association of Alberta said at an HBPA meeting earlier this week.
If approved, Balzac would have a 5-1/2 furlong racetrack, a grandstand, a bar, a lounge, restaurant facilities, an off-track-betting area and an entertainment space and, most importantly, 625 slot machines.
Horse racing used to be driven solely by wagering. But, as attendance and betting has been precariously sliding over the last 30 years, horse racing is now largely funded by slot-machine revenues from gaming machines located at racetracks.
More than half the thoroughbreds’ purse money — 52 per cent — comes from slot machines. Another 28 per cent of the purse money for thoroughbred racing comes from simulcast revenue, 10 per cent comes from the HRA’s breed improvement fund and entry fees. Ten per cent is all the horsemen now get from the live handle.
In 2008, Calgary’s last year of racing, there was $24.3 million in slot revenue, of which $9 million went to the horsemen.
When Stampede Park shut its doors, that $9 million a year disappeared.
“The HBPA has always been 100 per cent behind building a racing entertainment centre and track in southern Alberta to replace the revenue stream we lost in 2008,” said Mat Monaco, executive director of the HBPA. “If the Balzac Racetrack Entertainment Centre and track are up and running in 2015, thoroughbred purses and investment in bloodstock will rival the 2008 numbers.
“Balzac has been everybody’s question. There’s been a lot of stories and there has been a lot of BS,” said LeLacheur. “I can’t promise that there will be a track in Balzac, but we’re very hopeful.”
“We have received the financing that we require to move this project forward and bring class ‘A’ horse racing back to southern Alberta,” UHA president Darcy Marler said in a statement. “For now, we can say that the deal is firm. This is kind of the piece we’ve been missing for the past few years. We had the plan, but no money. Now we’ve got the money.”
Meanwhile, Northlands is excited to get the thoroughbred season underway.
“We’re coming on the heels of our best meet in 12 years, with wagering up 12 per cent from all sources last year,” said Roberts.
Eighty race dates are in store. But there are significant changes, with the biggest being that Northlands will hold 12 race cards on Monday afternoons, beginning at 1 p.m. With few tracks in North America racing on Mondays, this will allow Northlands to send out its signal for off-track betting.
The first three weeks of racing will be held only on Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons. In addition to the Monday cards, Northlands will also hold Wednesday evening races beginning on May 29. Post time on Friday is 6 p.m.