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Put the oil away – the secret is in the salt 15
TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2010
HORSE RACING AT FRASER DOWNS
‘THEY CAN’T JUST LET THIS DIE’
Horseman Dave Jungquist and Happy Herman in one of the barns on the Fraser Downs backstretch. Jungquist is one of many harness racing folk angry at cuts to the track’s schedule. ❚PHOTO/Ted Colley
Drivers say millions in forgiven debt would sure come in handy now Ted COLLEY Staff Reporter
A
s far as Dave Jungquist is concerned, this is no way to run a racetrack. Jungquist is one of Fraser Downs’ top driver/trainers. It’s the only work he knows and he knows it well. Monday morning, Jungquist was in Barn B at the Cloverdale harness racing circuit, looking after his horses. Like a lot of people on the backstretch, he’s worried about the future. The track’s owners, the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, have chopped a dozen race days out of the October to December schedule this year. GCGC has also told the provincial office that enforces gambling regulations in B.C. to erase the 2011 season, at least for the time being. The casino operator and the head of the enforcement branch say there will be racing next year, but a lot of people down in the trenches aren’t so sure. Horse racing is in trouble. Revenues
are falling and fewer punters are coming out to bet. The money is going to casinos and online gaming sites instead and outfits like GCGC are looking for ways to cut costs and boost profits. Jungquist thinks Fraser Downs’ problem is bigger than that. He believes GCGC wants to dump standardbred harness racing and move the thoroughbreds from Vancouver’s Hastings Racecourse – another GCGC operation – out to the Cloverdale track. “It’s dead certain that’s what they’re trying to do, in my opinion,” he told the Now Monday. Junquist isn’t alone. The book around Fraser Downs is that the rental GCGC pays for Hastings is too expensive for the casino company’s blood. A lot of folk out on the backstretch figure GCGC could save a bundle by moving the thoroughbreds out of Vancouver. Jungquist said when slots were first installed at Fraser Downs seven years ago, 10 per cent of the net win – the take after winners were paid out – went to the
harness racers to help them hold their own. “That lasted a little while, then we got cut back to half of that and the rest went to the thoroughbreds.” The shift in slot revenues was originally supposed to be a loan, a handout to tide the Hastings boys over until they got their own slot machines. Pretty soon they were $6 million in hock to their standardbred cousins. See YOUR LETTERS, page 11 According to another source on the backstretch who asked not to be identified, the thoroughbred bunch had paid off about $1 million when the debt was forgiven by a committee set up by the province to manage the horse racing industry. “We’ve always taken purse cuts to make sure we don’t go over budget,” the source said. “The thoroughbreds are always in the hole. They never take purse cuts.” So why, the Fraser Downs people want to know, was the multi-million debt
simply erased like it never existed? The money would be a big help to the standardbred racers right now. There were other questionable decisions, Jungquist said. Simulcast racing is a big revenue generator. Punters can bet on races broadcast from other tracks on closed circuit TV. “These guys moved our post time to 7:30 in the evening and that killed us in Ontario. Our racing wouldn’t start until 10:30 their time and it was too late, so nobody bet.” Jungquist and his colleagues understand times are changing and racing isn’t the draw it used to be, but they believe that effective advertising and post times calculated to click in the East could help turn that around. “A lot of people depend on Fraser Downs and harness racing for their living – hundreds of ’em,” Jungquist said. “They can’t just let this die.” Neither Great Canadian nor the BC Horse Racing Industry Management Committee was available for comment before the Now went to press. tcolley@thenownewspaper.com