Racing Plan for Ontario Due Tomorrow

There's a lot of rumor and innuendo about the release of the Snobelen et al report tomorrow in Ontario. The hopes range from the crazy (they're going to give all the slots money back!) to the more sensible (a transition plan with more than $50M over three years, with some sort of structural industry blueprint to help it move forward).

I don't have the foggiest what's going to happen.

What I do hope happens, if this turns out rosier than anyone thought, is that the people who protect the status quo (yes, that would be the people who torpedoed the RDSP* in Ontario a couple of years ago), get off the reservation. The industry has to move forward, and hangers on, status quo protectors and people with their hands out have to go. They had a seat at the table. They had a shot to run the industry and they failed.

Regardless, for those of us with horses in the province, and more importantly for others who derive a livelihood from it, we hope it's good news.

* Racing Development and Sustainability Plan, where 5% of purses from slots would be taken out for marketing, wagering innovations, lower takeouts, seeded pools, promotions and horse racing sustainability should slots be someday taken away.