Ontario Racing – Where is the money?

Where’s the money?? That is the question that every single harness racing owner/trainer/groom should be asking.

Today it was announced that owners of Thoroughbred horses will be receiving an extra $250/horse that is in training to help with the monthly bills. Wow, did this money just magically appear out of the sky, or was it already there?

I can tell you that the money was already there from cancellation of live cards of racing. Purse allocations from the GOV’T/OLG has been sitting in an account that is growing every single day that we don’t conduct live racing at any of the Ontario tracks.

I will speak from the standardbred side, but will tell you this riveting information came to me from a concerned T-BRED owner, who is as greatly concerned as I am regarding the allotted monies, and distribution of said funds for the owners to help with the training bills.

Why aren’t the standardbred owners getting an increase? That is a question that I have asked Bill O’Donnell President of COSA for months. He has told me that the $1000/month/horse we are getting is an amount that OR decided upon to give owners as relief towards their monthly training bills, and the rest of the accumulated monies was going into a pool for future purse increases.

Who decided on that amount? Was there a general meeting or did OR just make a calculated decision not realizing that someone, somewhere, would ask for a proper accounting.

Let’s get to the phone conversation I had with Bill O’Donnell this afternoon after I found out about the increase to T-BRED owners. I honestly think he didn’t realize that I would overreact in the fashion that I did. We have had a good relationship, sometimes talking 3-4 times / day to try and resolve the racing shutdown, but when I confronted him today thinking it was WEG who was responsible for the purse allocations, he finally told me it was OR that is in charge for purse distribution.

For me, I was in total disbelief, as for months, I was under the assumption that it was WEG who handled that part of it, and even through my frustration and cursing towards WEG which I thought was screwing us, he did not tell me it was the very people who we put into positions which are supposed to look after every person in the RACING industry that was.

Future purse increases are not what every owner if asked cares about. We live in a today world, not a tomorrow one. Our bills have been accumulating through three separate lockdowns on a monthly basis. He also told me some of the monies were going towards the Sire Stakes programs.

That of course is a joke, as most owners don’t own Sire Stake caliber horses, and those that do pay a monthly fee to enter the program, that is added to the already allotted GOV’T funding for the Sires Stakes.

The monies that are accumulating everyday need to be shared by the OR-OLG now to us as owners to keep the HARNESS industry vibrant. We, as owners need to request (of which we have every right to) a proper accounting of every dollar that comes in and goes out, so we can see how bad us as owners today, are really getting screwed!!

I’m sure that all of the accumulated dollars from previous lockdowns has not yet been distributed, and it’s time for us owners to hold the people who we elect accountable, after all they are supposed to have our best interest in mind RIGHT!!

We need a retroactive decision that pays us the amount of money we are entitled to, in other words distribute the surplus dollars to each of us for as many horses we had in training, not 50 cents, EVERY DOLLAR!!

by Mike Tanev

MT STABLES