Lose Your Shirt Owning Horses? But We Might Get Relief

I thought the biggest news of the day was that Georgia might be serving beer on Sunday's, but there is more. John Craig challenged the farming losses on our (Canadian) tax returns. At most we can claim $8750, which is not enough. And he won.

Much to the delight of the standardbred industry, the Federal Court did not agree. In the ruling (click here to view the PDF), Justice John A. Evans stated that he was "not persuaded that the Judge made any error of law in applying the somewhat more flexible and generous test in Gunn for determining the circumstances in which section 31 permits farming and non-farming income to be combined so that farming is a taxpayer’s chief source of income."

Cool, I can now lose even more money and get some of it back. And so can you.

In response to the increase in horse ownership this affords, Woodbine and major Breeders are going to lower takeout rates to help spur wagering and get horse racing on the front pages again. Nah, just kidding.

There is a welcome new race at Mohawk this year. Woodbine and owner Richard Young have combined to offer a $100,000 invite for mares. As most of you know, Young and Tom Hill, owners of Put on a Show and Western Silk respectively have been sparring in the media about who has the better horse. Instead of a match race, it looks like they will meet in this full-field invitation. The twist: Donations will be made to Young's daughters charity, Spring of Hope that does work in Africa.

The $100,000 race for Pacing Mares will have WEG Standardbred Director of Racing Scott McKelvie extend invitations to horses for the event with no nomination or starting fees. In lieu of those traditional payments, the owners in the race will be asked if each would be willing to donate a minimum of $1,000 toward the cause.


Pretty good news from North of the border today.