Racing returning to Calgary with new track

[cutchemist42]

http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/12/04/horse-racing-set-to-return-to-calgary-area-with-with-new-track-and-casino-near-crossiron-mills

[cj]

Backers of a horse race track and casino are in the final turn to making the $24 million facility on Calgary’s doorstep a reality.

Just can't seem to separate those two any longer.

[maclr11]

You'd be crazy to get approval for a track without a casino
It's not a sustainable industry
This track has had so many issues in growth
It's been in the works for ten plus years
Now its gonna be a 5 1/2 furlong oval
They must have fixed the water shortage issue. I know the Alberta horsemen are happy to returning south. Northlands is a dump and they lost a lot of So. Alberta owners
By that time 2016 that t-bred racing opens it would not shock me if one of
Marquis, Assiniboia, Northlands or Hastings is shuttering its doors.

[RXB]

Lucky for them that they didn't start this project a year earlier.

[HuggingTheRail]

By that time 2016 that t-bred racing opens it would not shock me if one of
Marquis, Assiniboia, Northlands or Hastings is shuttering its doors.

If Northlands and Hastings were smart, they would find a way to schedule so only one track is running...not sure what that would look like - Hastings in April and May, Northlands June, July, 1/2 of August, then Hastings through Canadian Thanksgiving or Breeders Cup Day.

The issues at Hastings:

- cost of racing is high, as the cost of living is so high in Vancouver. This is preventing new owners from coming in, and existing owners to throw in the towel. An external factor beyond their control, but a reality nonetheless.

- dwindling horse population due to shortened season. Because Hastings has less and less race days each year (down into the mid 60s for race days this year...I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it was 100 race days/year not THAT long ago)....more horses are going to Portland, Golden Gate and Turf Paradise at the end of the HST season. A number of these get claimed at those tracks, and the owners do not seem to claim as many, meaning less horses coming back.

- The first two points have left the bottom end of the horse population lacking. The bottom claimers used to draw full fields + AEs. This year, it was not uncommon to see a 6 or 7 horse field in a $4k claimer.

- Some track management leaving, and others that would struggle to make a sandwich if I spotted them the bread and the peanut butter

My first visit to HST was as a kid in the late 70s, and I have been a regular attendee since the mid-late 80s. Having watched it go down from the 130+ days back then, to where it is now, has been sad. The BC Interior B meet used to be 30 or more race days a year, and now its 5 or 6 at most. I really don't think there is a solution....the government support and casino subsidies can only stop the bleeding for so long. The only thing that gives me hope is seeing that Emerald is surviving, with lower purses and way more race dates....not sure what can be learned from their operation...

[cj]

You'd be crazy to get approval for a track without a casino
It's not a sustainable industry
This track has had so many issues in growth
It's been in the works for ten plus years
Now its gonna be a 5 1/2 furlong oval
They must have fixed the water shortage issue. I know the Alberta horsemen are happy to returning south. Northlands is a dump and they lost a lot of So. Alberta owners
By that time 2016 that t-bred racing opens it would not shock me if one of
Marquis, Assiniboia, Northlands or Hastings is shuttering its doors.

Do you have to have a track to get a casino there? I guess the obvious answer is yes, or there would be no track.

[RXB]

Lucky for them that they didn't start this project a year earlier.

Oh wait, it's north of the city rather than at Stampede Park. I should've read a little more closely before commenting.

[RXB]

If Northlands and Hastings were smart, they would find a way to schedule so only one track is running...not sure what that would look like - Hastings in April and May, Northlands June, July, 1/2 of August, then Hastings through Canadian Thanksgiving or Breeders Cup Day.



No way BC and Alberta would operate as a circuit. Large distances between Calgary/Edmonton and Vancouver. The Alberta horsemen who were based primarily in the south hate the Edmonton-only situation; imagine if people had to shuttle hundreds of miles farther for months at a time.

[maclr11]

If Northlands and Hastings were smart, they would find a way to schedule so only one track is running...not sure what that would look like - Hastings in April and May, Northlands June, July, 1/2 of August, then Hastings through Canadian Thanksgiving or Breeders Cup Day.

The issues at Hastings:

- cost of racing is high, as the cost of living is so high in Vancouver. This is preventing new owners from coming in, and existing owners to throw in the towel. An external factor beyond their control, but a reality nonetheless.

- dwindling horse population due to shortened season. Because Hastings has less and less race days each year (down into the mid 60s for race days this year...I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it was 100 race days/year not THAT long ago)....more horses are going to Portland, Golden Gate and Turf Paradise at the end of the HST season. A number of these get claimed at those tracks, and the owners do not seem to claim as many, meaning less horses coming back.

- The first two points have left the bottom end of the horse population lacking. The bottom claimers used to draw full fields + AEs. This year, it was not uncommon to see a 6 or 7 horse field in a $4k claimer.

- Some track management leaving, and others that would struggle to make a sandwich if I spotted them the bread and the peanut butter

My first visit to HST was as a kid in the late 70s, and I have been a regular attendee since the mid-late 80s. Having watched it go down from the 130+ days back then, to where it is now, has been sad. The BC Interior B meet used to be 30 or more race days a year, and now its 5 or 6 at most. I really don't think there is a solution....the government support and casino subsidies can only stop the bleeding for so long. The only thing that gives me hope is seeing that Emerald is surviving, with lower purses and way more race dates....not sure what can be learned from their operation...

In the end I think Calgary and Edmonton will return to a circuit like they used to had. Allowing for spring training in Calgary with some better weather.

Hastings was really down on horses this year and that land is so valuable
It's a long journey to team up with Hastings and Northlands
The western Canadian tracks do really hurt each other though. Even in terms of stakes schedules and posttimes and if you go to northlands asd isn't on tv and in Winnipeg its rare to find hastings on tv.
At some point the tracks have to start working together.

As for Marquis, they have small purses, small pools and don't run a ton of days, and have a horrible track, but they have incredible attendance numbers and field size.
They have almost zero simulcast wagering, but its not rare for 4000 people to be on track and to have 5 ten horse fields a night.

Fingers crossed that ASD gets its casino when the Conservative government comes back into power the next provincial election and they should be able to take off with increased purses and hopefully field size.

Northlands however is a total dump but they get some horses and now they probably starting in 2016 won't have to run all year.

[Some_One]

They can save more money by just skip building the grandstand because I can't see any use for it, it's the worst location for a track if racing was the primary purpose for the facility. This is just a glorified casino with a racetrack added on to get the right people/groups on board to sign off.

The area where this track is quite far from City Centre where it's not accessible by the C-train or you have to fight the traffic on Deerfoot trail. The reason they wanted to go to that area in the first place was to get the space to build a mile long track with all the barns, but as they realized how much that costs they kept downsizing to the point I don't know why they don't just refurb Stampede, at least you could get some night racing and get the downtown crowd out to the track after work.

[HuggingTheRail]

I agree with what you are saying, the distance between Northlands and Hastings makes any "sharing" difficult at best. Stampede and Northlands did have a nice circuit, and I am sure they will try to restore something similar this time round.

However, I do think it may be the only way Hastings survives beyond 5 years....they can't really cut more days from the 65, or there will be even more of an exodus out. They don't have the population to sustain 65 days, and they have tried all the incentives - ship and win, payouts to all finishing places, etc.

Geographically, an arrangement with Emerald works better, but I never read or sense that EmD has many issues sustaining where they are at...they have plateaued for the past several years.

Other than that, it would take something outside the box for Hst. Perhaps if single game sports betting gets okay'ed in this country, they could tap into that some how??