A proposal to bring a slate of harness racing cards to the Desert Park racetrack facility in Osoyoos this summer has been turned down by Harness Racing British Columbia, after their board of directors voted not to support it citing high costs, insurance and lack of confirmed horses as reasons. Desert Park hosted a successful harness racing card in the summer of 2014. (Richard McGuire file photo)
A proposal to bring harness racing to Osoyoos has been stopped in its tracks after the board of Harness Racing British Columbia voted to not support it.
The proposal, which had been in the works for almost a year, would have seen at least 10 – and as many as 22 – days of racing at Desert Park this summer.
It began after the Desert Park Exhibition Society applied with the B.C. government to hold a series of horse races at Desert Park this year.
The Gaming Policy & Enforcement office said it would only approve the races if the board of HRBC gave its recommendation to do so.
Heather Davies, the president of HRBC, said concerns about cost, insurance, and the steadily declining number of horses committed to race left the board with no choice but to vote against the proposal.
She pointed out that, by the time the board voted, only 33 horses were still on board, down from more than 60 when the process began. She also said the event would have cost more than $10,000 a day to run and many weren’t convinced that money could be made back.
“We’ve been fighting about this now for almost a year and it just finally came down to now we can’t support this, because we just don’t know,” she said. “I’m never happy to cut more race days, but I was terribly worried that it would be a money pit and that it would negatively impact our racing.”
Ross Sharpe, the HRBC board member who had been pushing the proposal forward, called the board’s decision a “shame.”
“As a co-ordinator I was extremely disappointed. Very, very disappointed,” he said.
Sharp believes attendance at the event could have been significant. Even though the board eventually decided against the proposal, he had nothing but good impressions of Osoyoos.
“I don’t have a negative word for anyone in Osoyoos, believe me. It’s a great facility down there. It’s a golden opportunity. It’s sad we couldn’t pull it off.”
Mike Valliere, the president of Desert Park Exhibition Society, echoed Sharp’s sentiments, saying his society did everything it could to help the process along.
“From our part, there was no hardship. In fact we were prepared to help them out completely. Our team here was bending over backwards to get it into place. We basically would have had to donate most of our summer just to be here for them and we were prepared to do that,” he said
Valliere said the ball is now in HRBC’s court and while they might try with the proposal again next year, he wasn’t confident anything would change. Davies was equally pragmatic, but didn’t rule out the possibility entirely.
The board with the Desert Park Exhibition Society is expected to announce its intentions to apply for thoroughbred racing cards at Desert Park this summer some time in the next couple of weeks.
TREVOR NICHOLS
Regional Reporter
