Horse racing and horse training are going to continue at the Desert Park racetrack facility for at least the next five years and that’s great news for so many people who call Osoyoos home.
And it’s equally great news for the tourists who flock to our community every summer and dozens of horse trainers and owners from Alberta who have been flocking to use the Desert Park barns and track for the past several years.
On Monday, Town of Osoyoos council announced it had reached a new five-year deal with the Desert Park Exhibition Society (DPES).
The official term used was “license of occupation,” but what it really means is all of the hard work put in by a small army of volunteers who belong to the DPES over the past five years will not have been in vain.
As anyone who has lived in this town for more than a decade knows, it wasn’t so long ago that Desert Park sat idle and was basically falling apart.
The facility hadn’t hosted a live horse racing card in more than a decade and the barns were virtually empty year-round until the DPES stepped in.
Over the past five years, there have been major upgrades to the racetrack itself, barns and stables and fencing.
The old dilapidated grandstand was repaired and upgraded over the last year and hundreds of patrons were able to sit in the shade out of the blazing hot South Okanagan sun when last year’s only race date took place in August.
When horse racing was brought back to Desert Park in 2013, local residents and visitors alike rejoiced as more than 2,000 people showed up.
The second race date in 2013 was also a resounding success.
Two more race dates were offered in 2014 and while the crowds weren’t quite as large, there was great support for live horse racing in Osoyoos.
A series of dangerous wildfires forced organizers to cancel a second race date in 2015, but the one race card that did take place was again successful.
Organizers with DPES introduced a weekend of medieval jousting this past May long weekend and, once again, there was solid community support.
The leadership with the DPES has made it very clear they would like to have three or four horse racing cards every summer and having this new deal in place with the Town can only help as they apply for race dates with provincial authorities.
Meanwhile, the upgrades to the facilities has resulted in hundreds of horses – and dozens of trainers and owners – coming to Osoyoos to train their race horses every January, February and March for the past several years.
The positive economic impact of this program can’t be understated as our Alberta visitors stay in local hotels and motels, eat in local restaurants and pubs and support local businesses during their extended stay in town.
Because Desert Park is so large, the potential for other summer events such as hosting large soccer and slow-pitch tournaments remains more than possible.
Desert Park has hosted major music concerts in the past and considering all of the upgrades and improvements to the facility, there’s no reasons this couldn’t happen again.
The bottom line is Osoyoos is a much better – and more active – place to live with Desert Park open and the DPES continuing to do good work.
There were days 20 and 30 years ago when this facility hosted horse racing cards that attracted massive crowds bigger than anything seen in 2013.
A return to those glory days could be just around the corner with this new five-year deal in place.
Congratulations to the leadership of DPES and town council and staff for working hard to ensure this successful partnership will continue for many years to come.
It would have been very tragic had a single complaint from a local citizen about the noise generated from a watering truck used to water the racetrack a few times a year had forced DPES to cease operations.
But thankfully that has been set aside and this new deal means a very bright future at Desert Park.
