If I had a racehorse stabled at Hastings Racecourse, the name I’d give it would be Take Out the Trash Friday after the communications stunt pulled by the BC Liberal government.
At 5 p.m. on April 12, the last Friday before the provincial election writ was dropped, the BC Horse Racing Management Committee’s report was finally published by the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch. Briefings for industry stakeholders were held earlier in the day, but nothing for a curious journalist.
However, the committee, set up in November 2009, will consult and deliberate more. The 23-page report, issued on the eve of the 2013 Hastings live rac ing season, is only a draft.
Originally expected last summer, the report on what to do with the struggling industry recommends decoupling thoroughbred and standardbred racing and setting up a new “governance triangle” with each discipline reporting to a separate management committee and financial working group.
“Quite frankly, I expected a little more substance,” said David Milburn, president of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association of BC. “What I do like is the committee has recognized that when the race track makes a cutback they save 100% of the money. Because all the money is pooled, when they make money at the track through wagering, it goes into the pool and they receive back 43%. So it’s in their interest to try and cut back as much as they can.”
It also said BC Lottery Corp. should have a bigger hand in marketing the Teletheatre BC off-track betting parlours. The report said the province’s 2004 support for slot machine installation at Hastings Racecourse and Fraser Downs flopped.
A percentage of royalties was earmarked for the sport, including purses. The province topped up the combined $6 million slot machine revenue with $4 million extra in 2011 and 2012.
Last December, top-up grants were replaced by increasing the industry’s share of net slot machine revenue to 25% from 15.5%. The net effect is that annual funding is supposed to remain at $10 million.
Live racing wagering was up 7.6% in 2012 at the tracks, but the amount wagered on simulcast at the tracks and via teletheatres continued to fall. Fraser Downs’ handle fell 9.8%; Hastings fell 7.9%. Teletheatre BC fell 1.9%. Overall, a 4.4% drop.
The perceived danger to racehorses across North America and the aging Hastings were identified as risks. Great Canadian Gaming promised upgrades when it was granted a casino licence in 2004 at the city-owned Hastings, but eventually balked at renovating the barns or building a parkade. It inked a two-year extension to 2014.
“The interests of the horse people and the track have to be aligned,” Milburn said, “and that I liked out of the report, there was a recognition that the interests are currently not aligned.”
Business cycle
From four hooves to two wheels.
Velofix is one-part bike doctor house call service, one-part mobile bike hospital.
The concept is simple: a Mercedes Sprinter Van with a professional repair shop inside. Bookable online, it’ll come to you for tune-ups, fittings, repairs, overhauls. It even doubles as a WiFi mini-cafe, thanks to partner Caffe Artigiano.
“What happened is one of my partners [Chris Guillemet] had just finished from doing the Ironman up in Penticton and had to get his bike refitted to his size,” said co-founder Boris Martin. “He’s had difficulty getting to any bike shop in any period of time. [We] were sitting in the garage looking at these 10 bikes and said I think we have a business here.”
Martin is a three-time Canadian national track cycling champion and a master certified bike mechanic from the Colorado Springs-based Barnett Bicycle Institute. The other two founders are former Canadian international soccer player Davide Xausa and Simon Whitfield, the 2000 Olympic triathlon champion and 2008 silver medallist who carried Canada’s flag into the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony.
Martin said Velofix plans to roll out the concept in Canada and the U.S. and is already planning two more trucks. •
