Horses round the final bend in the second race, which was open to quarter horses and thoroughbreds. The winner was number 4, Tanya’s Toad (second from left), the only thoroughbred in the race. (Richard McGuire photo)
Saturday’s race day at Desert Park showed that it is possible to host races of thoroughbreds, quarter horses and harness racing with standardbreds at the same event.
By most accounts, the experiment of running two harness races at the end of the program was a success.
Indeed, the Desert Park Exhibition Society has now successfully pulled off four race days — two this year and two last.
Society President Carol Youngberg and the many other volunteers deserve recognition and congratulations for bringing horseracing back to Osoyoos after a long hiatus of a decade and a half.
Horseracing is an excellent draw for both visitors and locals. Just as important, by restoring the race track and other facilities at Desert Park, the town can capitalize on Osoyoos as a winter destination for horse training when the Prairies are frozen solid.
That’s not to suggest that making a go of horseracing in the future will be easy. It’s a difficult business made even tougher by past government policies that have encouraged the growth of lotteries and other forms of gaming at the expense of horseracing.
No one is suggesting it is possible to turn back the clock to the days when horses were the only legal form of gambling, but it will mean that Osoyoos needs to be creative to make the races financially viable.
Harness Racing BC is looking for opportunities outside the Lower Mainland now that Fraser Downs is gradually reducing standardbred races to six months in the fall and winter.
Bringing back harness racing in the summer to interested communities in the B.C. Interior seems like a potential solution if interest can be generated and if a few issues surrounding the dual use of the track can be resolved.
While harness racing can be every bit as exciting as thoroughbred racing, it is hard to judge its popularity in Osoyoos based on Saturday’s races. By the time the harness races got underway around 5 p.m., many people had already packed it in and called it a day.
Which brings us to several issues that hopefully the Desert Park Exhibition Society can resolve in time for next year’s races.
Some of the waits between races were simply too long for spectators. Of course this is an organization run by volunteers and not racing professionals, but in this day of shorter attention spans, there is a need to keep the program moving along and exciting.
Seating is also an issue. The portable bleachers in the hot sun become uncomforable after a while. We have not yet seen the engineer’s report on the cost of repairing the grandstand seating, but hopefully this can be repaired or replaced.
The June race date had low participation of horses and jockeys and that was a problem. Saturday’s races had a more respectable showing due to the fact that there were not races at Hastings Park that day. Hopefully a better schedule can be worked out for next year.
Despite these challenges, we’ve now had four successful race days and they’ve been well attended. Thanks to the Desert Park Exhibition Society for a job well done.
