Standardbred horse breeders say they have no choice but to sue the province

by SUSAN MANN

A group of standardbred horse breeders say they are forced to sue the provincial government and Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation because for the past two years the government was unwilling to discuss compensation for damage to breeders’ incomes caused by its cancellation of the Slots at Racetracks program.

Premier and Agriculture Minister Kathleen Wynne, says by email forwarded by her agriculture ministry spokesperson Mark Cripps, “while this case is before the courts I can’t comment on the specifics of the claim.”

One of the 38 people participating in the lawsuit, Walter Parkinson, says they had to file their statements of claim separately against the Ontario government and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation but “it will become one lawsuit.” They were filed separately because of “logistics on how to launch it.”

The claim statements were filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Guelph on April 14. “Unless a settlement can be reached, it will go to litigation,” he says, noting “we’re looking to be quite aggressive with the case. Hopefully it’s faster than not” to work it’s way through the court system. But he says the time it takes to move through the court system is “up to the courts.”

The group is claiming $60 million in damages, $5 million for punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, court costs and any other relief “the court may deem just,” according to the statement of claim. None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Wynne says over the past year “our government has put Ontario’s horse racing industry on a path to a sustainable future. The future of the industry – here and across North America – relies on bringing new fans to the sport and Ontario’s Horse Racing Partnership Plan is about doing just that.”

The five-year $500 million plan integrates horse racing into the province’s gaming strategy and encourages the industry “to create and offer products racing fans want,” she says.

Parkinson, president of the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association, says the association is not involved in the lawsuit. It was launched by 38 different groups and that “represents 38 different breeding operations, 38 farms,” he says.

Their damage claim “is a combination of what has been lost and what will be lost in the years to come due to our production cycle,” he says.

“Our industry can’t realign on the timeline in which the cancellation was imposed, which was just one year’s notice was given,” says Parkinson, of Seelster Farms in Lucan. Breeders are on a five-year production cycle and “we had no way of adapting that production cycle in the short term.”

The breeders’ claim says the horse production cycle requires an average of five years’ worth “of time, effort and resources before a horse reaches a racetrack.”

Parkinson says after mares are bred there’s an 11-month gestation period. “She’ll foal in year two (of the five-year production cycle) and at the end of year three you sell that foal as a yearling or you keep it. In year four, it’s the first year those foals are eligible to race and it’s years four and five that they’re eligible to race in the Ontario Sire Stakes program.”

Under the Slots at Racetracks program, the government shared 20 per cent of the revenues from slots housed at 17 racetracks with the horse racing industry. It was introduced in 1998 but in March 2012 the Ontario government announced it was cancelling the program effective March 31, 2013.

The industry has been decimated by the program’s cancellation. Yearling sale prices, the number of mares being bred and horse boarding revenues have all been affected, Parkinson says, noting there’s also been a decrease in available purse money. “A lot of farms made quite a good living off of boarding horses and a lot of that has dried up since the announcement.”

In addition, there was less money available in the Horse Improvement program. The breeders’ claim statement says the program is a racing and breeding incentive program established by the Ontario government in 1974 to help Ontario farms remain economically stable and encourage ownership of Ontario-produced horses. Parkinson says before the announcement to cancel the slots at racetracks program, there was $47 million available in it, whereas in 2013 “there was only $30 million available across all three breeds – standardbred, thoroughbred and quarterhorse.”

(In an email today, Susan Murray, a ministry spokesperson, confirms that the Horse Improvement program funding is available to all Ontario-produced horses destined for racing, regardless of breed).

About prices for Ontario-sired yearlings, they dropped 43 per cent across the board in one year, Parkinson says. The price drop occurred from 2011, before the announcement of the program’s cancellation, to 2012.

Standardbred breeders haven’t received any compensation from the government to mitigate their losses, he says. BF