The second jewel of Canadian thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown is staying put, at least for one more year.
On Tuesday, provincial premier Kathleen Wynne announced tentative transition funding agreements with three tracks 鈥� Fort Erie, Georgian Downs and Flamboro Downs 鈥� for the 2013 season. That ensures horse-racing dates at the three venues this year, meaning the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes will go at Fort Erie sometime in July.
Track officials are expected to unveil details at a news conference Thursday in Fort Erie, Ont., at the venerable facility.
"I'd anticipate the Prince of Wales will remain at Fort Erie," Sue Leslie, president of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association of Ontario, said Wednesday. "Regrettably it's not longer than a year but we're doing our best to work with the new premier and new Liberal government . . . so that horse-racing becomes part of the gaming file again.
"The premier has announced she's going to do that so with that we anticipate there will be new revenue streams for horse-racing. If that happens in a very short period of time, which we're doing everything we can to insist that must get resolved quickly, then, of course, it would mean another set of negotiations going forward to maintain Fort Erie again next year.''
The exact date for the 2013 Prince of Wales Stakes 鈥� the race had a $500,000 purse last season 鈥� wasn't immediately known but it traditionally runs about three weeks after the $1-million Queen's Plate. And with this year's Plate going July 7 at Toronto's Woodbine Racetrack, the expectation is the Prince of Wales event will go postward July 28.
The 115-year-old Fort Erie track has hosted the Prince of Wales since 1929. But last year's racing season was expected to be Fort Erie's last after former Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty axed a revenue-sharing agreement that gave racetracks a slice of $345 million in annual slot profits.
Leslie admits there's still much work to do to solidify horse-racing's future in Ontario. But she's encouraged that Wynne feels the sport is important to the province's economy.
"We definitely see a more willing partner with the new premier than we did before," Leslie said. "Of course, we don't want to count our eggs before they hatch but the premier hasn't given us any reason not to continue to operate in good faith so that's what we're doing.
"Fort Erie is important to Ontario for so many reasons. It's certainly important to horse-racing but it's so important to the town, it's so important to jobs, it's so important to heritage, to culture. It's way over 100 years old and there's a tremendous amount of history there.''
Leslie said the horse-racing industry provides around 2,000 jobs in Fort Erie and is a major economic player in the city of roughly 30,000 residents.
"The people have literally dedicated their lives to Fort Erie and are so dependent on it staying open," she said. "We wish it were a sustainable, long-term agreement so that people could feel comfortable buying a home there and setting up a residence there for the longterm and that's a regret.
"We're hopeful negotiations are moving forward on a long-term sustainability. We couldn't risk the track closing because it would've been extremely difficult to get it re-opened.''
