HORSE RACING programs are packed with information:
a horse’s breeding, past performance charts, color, weight,
owners, jockeys and much, much more.

Some of this is required by law
to make the wagering as fair as
possible.

If NDP Downs & Fantasy Park

ever gets built (it will not) at the
Pacific National Exhibition, a

prominent racing official told me
this week, it may be necessary (o
include the abbreviations GT or
BT after each horse’s name.

This will be short for “Good
Trucker” and ‘‘Bad Trucker.”

There are no stables in this
design. All residential and training
facilities for all horses will have to
be located elsewhere, most likely
in: the Langley and Aldergrove
area.

Every race day, 100 horses and
more will have to travel back and
forth on the freeway from the
PNE.

This is an NDP special: Colin
Gablemann, Glen Clark, Sandra
Bannister (PNE president),
Carolyn Askew (B.C. Racing
Commission chair) and Bob
Williams thought this up by
themselves.

For expert help, Williams sent
in his latest gopher, former Socred
minister Sam Bawl!, who had
precisely the same horse racing
credentials as the rest of them:
none,

Like children drawing lines en a
blackboard, they designed a race-
track.

It has a park in the middie, ac-
cessible through tunnels. This
conjures up delightful images of
spectacles that will augment rac-
ing. i

It will be the only raceway in
North America that more closely
resembles a pear than it docs a

- rectangle with rounded ends.

. When they took offic? in late
1991, they inherited a Social Crea-
it decision that Western Delta
Lands, if it could get all aecessary
municipal and environmental ap-
provals, could proceed with a $90
million track complex at Burns
Bog.

This one-mile track, extendable
to a mile and a half, with an inte-
rior turf course, would feature all
the modern amenities: siables,
sophisticated transport accom-
modation, veterinary facilities,
parade ring, paddock and a hand-
some clubhouse and prandstand.

The City of Vancouver viewed
the matter as a PNE issue, part of
its battle to take over its Hastings

Park property in. 1994.

The city made it clear that its
plans would have extended the

lease of the B.C. Jockey Club
with its current five-eighths-mile
track.

But the industry clamored for a
one-mile track.

The NDP had a choice between
A and B and opted for i”.

The government voided the deal
with Western Delta Lands, an in-
credible breach of faith that is
now having serious repercussions
on Hong Kong investment.

To maintain management of the
PNE, the NDP announced that it
would also void the contract with
the city that would have turned
over control of the PNE in 1994,
This will require legislation.

But the PNE is in pathetic fi-
nancial shape. It is currently set-
ting record financial losses.

It is apparent that the NDP
group sees horse racing as @ cash
cow to be milked.

With visions of sugar plums
dancing through their brains, they
see direct government manage-
ment of horse racing as economic
salvation. For this to happen, the
B.C. Jockey Club, Jack Diamond
and all the professional managers
must be given the boot. Know-
ledge is a dangerous thing.

A handful of foolish horsemen
(two of whom were rewarded with
appointments to the B.C. Racing
Commission) bought into the —-
NDP scheme. ;

They tried to jam a one-mile
track onto the existing site. By
removing all of the existing barns,
and confiscating every square inch
of space, this romper-room group
came up with a seven-cighths-mile
track, With chutes, they excitedly
said, it could be a one-mile race-
track. :

Squeezing it into the available
space has produced a highly
peculiar race coutse.

What’s more amazing is that
the government thought it had the
support of the industry. They
didn’t ask very many people.

There is a revolution currently
under way in the Horsemen's
Benevolent and Protective
Association. The breeders are ap-
palled and threatening to substan-
tially reduce their investment in
the sport.

There is a solution. We should
simply duplicate a Toronto expe-
rience.

A good quiz question would be:
“What famous racetrack is
located on Woodbine Avenue in
Toronto?”

The answer is Greenwood
Raceway, a track that is rivaled
only by The Meadowlands in New
Jersey as the finest harness racing
facility in the world.

Greenwood used to be Wood-
bine. In 1956, Canada's most
famous thoroughbred track
relocated to Rexdale.

If Western Delta is permitted to
build its first-class track complex
at Burns Bog, British Columbia
would enter the big leagues.

In addition to the immediate
investment of $90 million of new
capital, industry estimates indicate
that within 10 years, the sport and
its support services would create
20,000 new jobs.

We would become major-league
breeders.

Harness racing, currently head-
quartered at Cloverdale, should be
invited to move downtown. The
Exhibition Park racetrack is an
ideal length for the standard-bred
horses. .

This would require major in-
vestment in barns and suppor!
services, but it’s likely a deal
could be negotiated.

James Keeling Jr., the general
manager of Cloverdale Raceway,
had previously informed the gov-
ernment that he would consider
such a move.

He further advised that Clover-
dale Raceway would be retained
for training, stabling, veterinary
services, tele-theatre wagering, a
major equestrian centre and
possibly even off-season racing.

But Keeling’s ideas have been
given the same reception as the
presentations of the B.C. Jockey
Club, the Western Delta group,
the breeders and most of the
horsemen. :

Government is wary of thes
people: they’ve actually attended
many horse races
i

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