(Reprinted from Ivan Biggs’ At the Races column in the Canstar Community News)
This year’s horse racing season was, to say the least, eventful. What we didn’t know was the behind-the-scenes efforts to make the race season a reality at Assiniboia Downs in the face of a pandemic that shut down almost everything. In today’s question-and-answer column, Assiniboia Downs’ CEO Darren Dunn reveals his thoughts and the difficulties in making horse racing a go.
Q: What kinds of emotions were you feeling when the track had to shut down because of COVID?
A: I had great feelings of deep concern. I was keenly aware that if we were not able to re-open and run a live season, the outcome could be catastrophic for the industry.
Q: What kind of hurdles did you have to overcome to get live racing going again?
A: There were too many hurdles to mention, but suffice to say, in conjunction with V.P. Finance & Gaming, Sharon Gulyas, we had to secure a license to race, deal with sudden massive revenue reductions, assess and implement an internal labour strategy and communicate a transparent plan with all stakeholders which included our employees, the horse owners, trainers and jockeys and the government, media and our valued customers. Add to that the loss of our American horse trainers and about 80 per cent of our planned jockey colony trapped outside Canada and completely unavailable to us.
Q: Why do you suppose ASD was able to be first out of the gate in offering live racing in Canada?
A: Timing was somewhat on our side since our season had originally been slated to begin on Mother’s Day. We had the model of spectator-free racing at a few tracks in the U.S. so, with an extremely understanding provincial government and health officials, we were able to get underway spectator-free two weeks after Mother’s Day.
Q: What were the main positives that came out of having COVID around?
A: If there was anything good to come out of this, it was our ability to sell our racing signal around the world and our ability to open new online wagering accounts.
Q: What were the negatives?
A: Too many negatives to mention, but one of the worst was having to lay off 50 staff members in one day – Sharon and I will never forget that empty feeling – though it had to be done to protect the business.
Q: Your voice is on ASD radio commercials. Where did you record them?
A: They were recorded on my phone in my clothes closet with the script balanced on my ironing board – one of the strangest things I have ever done – but it was required to get the right sound and because I had no access to the Bell-Media studio.
Q: Describe ASD fan support during the pandemic
A: Epic, patient and understanding.
Q: What plans do you have going forward to make the best of a difficult situation?
A: Still to be determined, but the complete revision of our race schedule to Mon-Wed is strongly worth a revisit next year.
(Reprinted from At the Races column in the Canstar Community News)
While sipping their morning coffee, race fans in Australia were betting nightly races half a world away at the little track on the Canadian prairies where betting pools have hit historic highs. That was just one of seemingly endless firsts in Assiniboia Downs’ COVID-crazy race meet that just came to an end. Firsts are usually recorded in the winner’s circle; this year there seemed to be just as many firsts outside of it. Namely:
- Never has wagering reached such epic proportions. The total wagering for this season’s 50-day meet was $63.3 million, more than five times the $12.5 million wagered last year. That amounted to an average of $1.26 million a night. The previous high for a race meet was $53.4 million in 1981 but that was for a 135-day season.
- Never have Assiniboia races been so widely available to wager on — in Germany, England, Brazil, Mexico, the U.S. and Australia. When horses went to the post at 7:30 p.m. Monday to Wednesday in Winnipeg, it was 10:30 a.m. Tuesday to Thursday in Sydney, Australia where racing is so important there’s a national holiday to celebrate it.
- Never have so many people watched and wagered on ASD races from home.
- Never have races been run with no spectators in the stands or on the tarmac.
- Never has CEO Darren Dunn made so many trophy presentations–in a mask, of course–representing prominent figures who might have made presentations were it not for the pandemic. There were 32 stakes races in all.
- Never have a trainer, Jerry Gourneau, and a jockey, Antonio Whitehall, so dominated a race meet. Gourneau logged 73 wins, almost double those of runner-up Tom Gardipy Jr. and Whitehall’s 74 wins was 26 more than Stanley Chadee Jr.
- Never has there been such a dearth of jockeys–because many were unable to travel from the Caribbean to Canada. An unusual spate of jockey injuries on the final race night meant two horses had to be scratched from the last race because of a lack of riders.
This list could go on. Suffice to say that racing fans were happy that whatever steps were necessary to keep racing going were taken.
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