Racing in Saint John in jeopardy as Exhibition Park lease declined

Harness racing faces its end at Saint John’s Exhibition Park Raceway as the city’s Exhibition Association rejected an offer from Horse Racing New Brunswick to renew the track’s lease last month.

The expiry of the lease on Dec. 31 would mean the termination of racing in Saint John, N.B. after more than 150 years. Horse Racing New Brunswick (HRNB), which oversees the sport in the province, has offered a new deal to the Exhibition Association (EA) with an Oct. 14 deadline.

Exhibition Park Raceway has existed in its current form since the mid-20th century, but its roots as Moosepath Driving Park date back to the 1870s. The track has been the main location for racing in the province since Fredericton Raceway closed when its lease ended in 2016. A card was held at Connell Park in Woodstock this season, but Exhibition Park is the current home of racing in New Brunswick. The lease expiring would likely force HRNB to schedule most of its future dates at Woodstock.

“It’s a sickening feeling,” said HRNB board member Charlie Miles. “You’re ending something that has been the king of harness racing in the Maritimes.”

Miles said he thinks the improved terms of the newest offer should satisfy any financial concerns of the EA.

“They’re kind of playing hardball because, in my opinion, they want the money they have allocated that they need to break even,” he said. “And now, making that last bid, we are at or slightly above where they wanted. So the decision (to decline) shouldn’t be about money. If this decision is about money, then in my opinion, it should be accepted.”

It would be the latest blow for New Brunswick harness racing after a decade that has seen the cancellation of a deal to install slot machines at Exhibition Park, the end of government funding for racing, and the closure of a track in the capital. The Progressive Conservative government cut all subsidy – around $600,000 – in its 2013 budget. Two years prior, it pulled its contribution to the Atlantic Sires Stakes, and New Brunswick no longer gets race dates from the key breeding program. In 2012, the government cancelled a contract to build a racino facility at Exhibition Park one day after HRNB secured a partner to build it. Four years later, Fredericton Raceway closed, ending 150 years of racing in the province’s capital.

The racing industry has since experienced financial hardship. According to the Telegraph-Journal, HRNB owned around $500,000 to the EA but had paid off all debt by the end of 2021. Miles said the organization is “in the black.” However, he said he believes the EA may be looking to redevelop the land rather than accept improved financial terms to continue racing.

EA President Glen Tait was unreachable for comment and an interview request via the organization’s website went unanswered.

About 25 horses are stabled at Exhibition Park, and the next concern – should the lease be declined – is where to move them. Miles says he hopes the EA would grant HRNB a six-month grace period to house the horses on the grounds until new lodging could be found. The next step would be to organize racing at Woodstock and consider options to bring the sport back to Fredericton, likely on a limited basis.

Miles said the closure of Exhibition Park Raceway would be “25 per cent more damaging, at least” to the racing industry in the province. In regard to the experience of the horsepeople, he said “it’s very disturbing as it was for the people in Fredericton. […] It usually means the end of an era.”

The HRNB board submitted its “last-ditch” offer to the EA on Sep. 30. At the time of publication, there has been no formal response.

The final card of racing at Exhibition Park Raceway this year is scheduled for Oct. 15.

Miles, speaking about the probability of the EA accepting the new deal and saving racing in Saint John, said “fifty-fifty.”

by Nicholas Barnsdale, for Harnesslink