It is race-day at Georgian Downs June 8, 2013, and it’s an exciting time.
But it’s also an uncertain time, with fewer horses, fewer trainers and fewer races, and, as a result, fewer smiles in the barn.
Dale Heard is here, with his son and two horses, and he's still hanging on to an industry that has been in limbo since the government cancelled the slots at race tracks program last year, cutting the purse-money the horse racing industry relies on to make a living.
“It's a lot more sombre, a lot of people you don't see around here anymore,” Heard says. “I don't know what to expect. That’s the toughest part, no one knows what to expect.”
There's so little money in horse racing now that some people have brought their horses to Georgian Downs today, not to race them, but to give them away.
“I'm trying to give away two nice fillies because I can't afford to keep them,” Heard says. “Nobody wants them. There's no money in horseracing.”
The provincial government has given about $180 million to the horse racing industry, but the money has gone to the race tracks, not to the racers
Bruce Barbour is with Great Canadian Gaming, the company that owns Georgian Downs, and he says the track will actually lose money this year on racing, but he hopes that once everything has settled a new - albeit much smaller - racing industry will emerge.
“I think everyone's trying to gauge with all the tracks what this thing will look like as we go forward. It's really a matter of surviving this year and getting to next year and seeing if the industry can work with the government and get to a new place,” Barbour says.
