After 38 days of the meet we have run 293 races, 14 less than last year. Our field size is 7.10 which appears to have stabilized. I am not saying that it is a good number because it is not. But there is hope that it will rise as we have added 13 new starters this past weekend. The total amount of horses that have started at least once is 649. Included in this figure are 55 two year olds that also have had 1 start. Forty Five are BC Bred. Our handle is down 7.24% but when you factor in the 14 missed races it is off 2.81%. A far cry better than the Standardbred sector who are off significantly but still were rewarded with an 82 day meet over 10 months. More on that later. I am still optimistic that with more and more two year olds entering the horse pool we can actually finish the meet at least equal to last year handle wise. Unfortunately the all-important net number is a problem because of the sliding USD which affects our incoming US bets. This morning the Canadian Dollar was worth 3.25% more than the US Dollar. The next 15 days of the meet are very important including August 01 BC Cup Day. However we do have an opportunity to make up some lost ground handle wise when compared to last year’s numbers. I am very hopeful.
The leading horse on the grounds is Castinette Dancer with $85,303 in earnings and a 4-3-1-0 record.
St. Liams Halo has $74,039 in earnings and a perfect record of 3-3-0-0. The leading rider is Mario Gutierrez with 51 wins and Richard Hamel with 50 wins. Note that Mario has 60 less starts. We have 30 jockeys with at least 1 ride. Troy Taylor is leading trainer with 30 wins. We have 103 licensed trainers on the grounds that have had at least 1 start. The leading owners are Glen Todd and Patrick Kinsella with 36 wins and $611,620 in earnings. Swift Thoroughbreds are second with 14 wins and $239,301 in earnings. This last number is the disheartening number. There are 388 listed owners with at least 1 start. Last year we completed the meet with 488 listed owners. Remember all of the above numbers are for our meet only. Out of town stats are not in the above. Glen Todd and Patrick Kinsella are ranked 50th in North America for total earnings with $647,352.
ATTENTION:
ALL HORSE RACING MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEMBERS
I will assume by now that Mr. Glen Todd has forwarded on to you my comments from a previous post with regards to the 2012 budget allocations. This morning I have completed some additional calculations and I have the Thoroughbred sector down approximately $572,000 and the Standardbred sector down $1,547,000 by years end. This is not handle but actual net dollars. Almost half of the thoroughbred loss can be attributed to the USD downturn. I think you will all agree that the numbers that I show are very close and speak to the following point. The present budget split of 29.27% Thoroughbred and 19.49% Standardbreds needs adjustment. The appropriate percentages should now be 31.66% and 17.10%.
I will also repeat myself from an earlier post in that any increased costs attributed to the longer duration of the meet now over 10 months with 82 days must come from the Standardbreds allotment and not from GCCC. I am hopeful that all committee members agree some standard of measure is in order here.
Michael Robert Bye
G&G Stable
