IN THE MATTER OF THE RACING COMMISSION ACT, S.O. 2000, c.20;
AND IN THE MATTER OF
RACE DATES FOR
CLINTON RACETRACK
Application for one additional race date from Clinton Raceway was received in response to Ruling Number Gen 4/2004, dated February 26, 2004.
Additional Date: Sunday October 3, 2004
Post time 1:30 p.m.
On March 10, 2004, the Ontario Racing Commission approved the revised 2004 live race date schedule for this track as follows:
Live Dates
Clinton Raceway 18 days
All intertrack dates as originally applied for are also approved.
Reasons for decision and calendar of dates approved will be released under separate cover at a later date.
DATED this 10th day of March 2004.
BY ORDER OF THE COMMISSION
Jean Major
Executive Director
REASONS FOR DECISION
In Ruling Gen 4/2004 issued February 26, 2004, the Commission ruled that Clinton Raceway’s application for dates for live racing was not approved effective March 11, 2004. The track was provided with the opportunity to apply for additional race dates on or before March 10, 2004. The track had raced 19 days in 2003 but only applied for 17 for 2004.
A revised application to add one additional date of racing in 2004 was received within the time frame established by the ruling and was approved by Ruling Gen 5/2004 on March 10, 2004. These are the reasons of the Commission for its decision.
The one additional day does meet the minimum requirement to satisfy the Commission’s earlier ruling. OHHA has indicated it is content with one additional day of racing though it has not shared with the Commission the reasons for one day being satisfactory and not more as it originally requested. The Commission had hoped that Clinton would be more aggressive and that some indication in the application would have been given as to the follow up that we invited with respect to discussions to deal with the issues that separate the industry participants on the impact of live racing dates. No further information on that process was provided. Therefore we are left with a participant reluctantly complying with the bare minimum requirement with no indication that long-term issues will be addressed in the 2004 time frame.
As in the case of the other Southwestern Ontario tracks dealt with in Ruling Gen 4/2004, the Commission expects the track to monitor handle, attendance, horse population, etc. and to provide the information to the Commission in the 2005 race date application as to the impact of the additional live racing date on the track, including the information as described in the five bullet points on page 3 of the Ruling.
The long-term issues concerning live race dates must be addressed but we recognize that Clinton is not the only track that must deal with them and we must look to alternative resources and processes to deal with the issue.
DATED this 24th day of March 2004.
Lynda Tanaka
Chair