At Day 50 of our Meet.......................

Well here is where we are after the weekend and day 50 of the meet.

We have run 381 races with 2681 runners. Our field size has slipped to 7.04 which is largely due to the virus that has been going around the barn the last 2 weeks. We had 11 scratches on Sunday. Our handle is just under $21,000,000. Considering that we have run 24 less races when compared to the same point in time last year, it is not bad at all. Between weather, the horse shortage, the virus, and scheduling we really have held it together. The total number of horses that have run is 699. The leading owners are Glen Todd and Patrick Kinsella with 45 wins and earnings of $737,927. No surprise that Troy Taylor is leading trainer with 40 wins. Wando Women is the leading horse with $88,649 in earnings. Glen Todd and Patrick Kinsella are ranked in 49th spot in the North American owner rankings.

It was noted in the DRF on Sunday that an agreement was imminent with regards to paying each finish position 6 to 12 the amount of $600.00. I am happy to report that Our “Management Racing Committee” representative Glenn Todd and the HBPA worked out an agreement on this matter. A few of the logistics of it all still have to be ironed out but it will be retroactive to last Saturday. Hopefully this move will protect our fields going into the last month of the meet. It is vital that we finish strong as we hit the last few weeks of September. We urgently need horsemen to run horses and keep them here. Our horse population has fallen badly the last number of years and we need to stem the loss now. We live and die by our horse field size. Field size determines handle which determines our purses. We need to have our horse population in the 850 range to be able to build for the future. We also need to have a longer meet. Next year finishing on Breeders Cup day November 03 would go a long way to keeping more horses here. Trainers would have far less of a need to leave here and go south with horses.

The Richmond Derby Trial is this weekend and so that means that the BC Derby is not that far away. This is always one of our biggest days of the year and that day should be circled on everyone’s calendar. SEPTEMBER 11, 2011. And remember there will be 5 other stakes races that day.

Very shortly the Management Racing Committee will begin their process of setting the budget for 2012. Hopefully I have made enough noise on two points. The unfairness of the allotment percentages and the the split of the $10,000,000 government grant/slot revenue. I will be very keen to hear of any news on this matter. I am presently doing some research on some numbers that I have “found” and will be writing an interesting piece shortly.

The petition that was circulating in the backstretch has been turned in to the HBPA. Originally the goal was to gather 200 signatures. However 300 were obtained with relative ease and it would have reached more than 450 in a very short period of time. But the meet is marching on and it was thought best to turn the petition in and let the HBPA Board of Directors proceed from here.

Now reaching over 570 owners, trainers, breeders, jockeys, jockey agents,
Hastings Management, BCLC, and the Management Racing Committee.
2689 site visits up to and including August 07, 2011