Lexington, Ky – As Kentucky racetracks continue the fight to allow slot machines in the state as a means of generating cash flow to its Thoroughbred industry, Ontario is dealing with its own slots drama. The Canadian province allowed slots at racetracks in 1998, with 20 percent of the machines’ revenue bolstering both racetrack purses and breeders’ incentive awards for Ontario-breds.
As a result, the province’s industry exploded, and horses bred in Ontario became eligible for ever-increasing bonuses if they won races there, which made their value at public auctions like Keeneland’s higher than it ever had been before.
Then, when the government needed to tighten its budget, the horse industry became a target.
“Governments of all stripes are now in a very tough fiscal situation … they have to balance their books. There’s only two traditional ways government can do that—they can raise taxes or they can cut spending, and if they do both at the same time they’ll make a quicker recovery … we became in the crosshairs in Ontario,” said Bernard McCormack. McCormack owns Ontario-based Cara Bloodstock, which sells 17 horses in the November sale, as well as Mapleshade Farm.
The Thoroughbred economy was thrown into uncertainty as the government considered pulling its support of the industry.
According to a 2010 economic impact study conducted by the Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association, the industry sustains some 60,000 jobs and spends about $2 billion annually to keep running, mostly in rural areas where agriculture is the primary moneymaker.
“It would make no sense for the government to just pull everything and say ‘You’re on your own,’ but that’s how it played out. The negotiations happened second to that,” said McCormack.
Ultimately, McCormack says, the ensuing controversy forced horsemen to expand communication with officials and begin marketing their sport to new fans, which he believes was productive and has facilitated a proposed compromise—slots will be pulled from racetracks in 2013, but tracks will receive government funding for the next three years and may be allowed to host instant racing and/or betting on single sports events.
“There’s a new handbook being written, and I think the last six, nine months in Ontario has been what people [in the United States] will be looking at and saying, ‘Look, we need to have a new partnership with government. We need to have a new partnership with fans.’”
