Fort Erie: Increased government funding paves way for 37-day meet

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Fort Erie Race Track will run a 37-day Thoroughbred race meet in 2014 after the Ontario government announced increased funding for the province’s horse-racing industry Monday.

The track will host live racing Sundays and Tuesdays this summer, with opening day scheduled for May 27. The meet will conclude Sept. 30. First post Sundays will be 2 p.m. Eastern, and first post Tuesdays will be 4:15 p.m.

Fort Erie will host the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes, the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown, on July 29.

The provincial government in October committed $400 million over five years to horse racing but increased that commitment to $500 million in a new agreement with the industry to include live racing at several tracks originally left out of the Horse Racing Partnership Plan. The industry’s agreement with the government will allow Fort Erie to remain open for at least two more seasons beyond 2014.

“The idea of the additional funding is to supplement the regional tracks,” said Sue Leslie, president of the Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association. “They were a little bit short on what was needed to have decent purses and to have enough race dates for them to even make sense to open.”

The track is getting the majority of its funding from the government but also required a $500,000 contribution from the town’s council in order to operate a 2014 meet.

Fort Erie originally was scheduled to host 50 days of live racing in 2013, running three days a week, but horse-supply issues throughout the season forced the track to race only two days a week. Forty-one live race cards were completed, with an average daily purse of $119,281.

Leslie said she anticipates purse levels at Fort Erie will be similar to 2013, but she noted that horse supply could be a concern, not only at Fort Erie but at Woodbine and throughout the province.

“We’ve lost so many of our investors in the industry,” she said. “With this announcement being so late, it’s very hard to recruit and keep people at the track with year after year of uncertainty. I think now that we can say it’s a three-year deal [at Fort Erie], people will slowly come back.”

Fort Erie’s backstretch will open April 26, with training beginning April 27.