Woodbine’s 2017 Thoroughbred stakes schedule was released, but with a reduced purse in a majority of races. Overall, the stakes purse was reduced by $2.65 million and four stakes races have been eliminated including the Deputy Minister, Vandal, Swynford, and Fanfreleuche. While the allocation of the savings hasn’t been fully determined, the HBPA confirms that at least $1 million will be used to increase the overnight purses.
“We would obviously like to see no reduction, but that’s not the world we live in,” commented CTHS president Glenn Sikura. “WEG reviewed the proposed changes and why with the CTHS and there were some negotiations. Where they ended up wasn’t where we started, so there was some meaningful interaction.”
The CTHS does provide money to WEG to enhance purses of which the cancelled races were a part and that money has been re-invested.
“Some people thought that we put money into those specific races and that their cancellation meant that we would have extra money, but that’s not the case,” explained Sikura. “The argument that WEG used is that they had topped up races previously and felt that CTHS had contributed to the gross amount rather than for specific races. On reflection, the board thought that was the proper thing to do. The most important thing to be noted was that there will be a complete TIP review be done shortly to assess if any changes need to be made going forward.”
The Ontario HBPA reports that there will be no reduction to the Ontario Sired bonuses for 2017. In a release they noted that, “The current program will see the addition of optional Ontario Sired/40 in NW2 and NW3 category. This will allow owners three opportunities to run their OS horses protected, should they choose.”
The HBPA’s statement also noted that they were not able to reach an agreement on the use of the cut in the stakes program:
“We have agreement to use $1,000,000 of the $2,000,000 to increase Maiden purses which are reflected in the new condition book. This is good news because an increase in maiden purses affords owners the best opportunity to run for good purses on the front end. However, the HBPA holds the view that the entire $2,000,000 stake reduction should be used to increase overnight purses. The HBPA’s position could change if we were provided transparent evidence that WEG requires that other $1,000,000 to assist in WEG operations for the betterment of horseracing. WEG has offered different reasons throughout the negotiations as to why they should retain half of the stake cuts.
In addition, you should know they are contemplating running one less race a week for an additional $500,000 plus reduction in purses. In making the above reductions, WEG states they still fulfill the requirements of purse commitment required by Government.
As the HBPA is not privy to WEG financials we remain in opposition to their retaining $1,000,000 of the stakes money reduction and any reduction in races. We have done our best to encourage that overall purses paid be maintained at the same amount as 2016 but distributed through increased overnights rather than stakes.”
WEG’s Executive Vice-President of Racing, Jamie Martin, noted that the reductions were necessary to accommodate the new realities in racing. “We continue to commit to working with our industry partners, who understand the challenges Woodbine faces in balancing the pressures of offering quality horse racing product to our loyal fans and the significant expense attached to conducting our business.”
“As part of our core mandate, Woodbine Entertainment Group is committed to achieving the highest quality of horse racing,” he added. “We’re proceeding with an initiative to rebalance our overall Thoroughbred purse program, committing another $1 million to ‘overnight’ purses, which will substantially benefit our local horsepeople. This reorganization towards overnight purses and resulting stakes purses reflects WEG’s $68 million overall purse contribution in 2017.”
Over $233 million has been committed to Thoroughbred purses at Woodbine from 2013 to 2017. This represents $10 million over mandated purse levels. The reset of the purse structure also reflects the depletion of a purse surplus WEG has been deploying since the introduction of the Ontario Sires bonus program in 2014.
The 133-date start of Woodbine’s 61st season is set for Saturday, April 15, with a first-race post of 1:00 p.m. and concludes on Sunday, December 10.
A detailed 2017 thoroughbred stakes schedule is available at this link.
More from Canadian Thoroughbred:
