The Princeton Race Track (pictured) is run by the Princeton Exhibtion Association. The association’s president said his group’s operations have been successful and the South Interior Recreational Equine Centre is looking to the association as a model for its activities at Desert Park. Photo by Bruce Merit
OSOYOOS TIMES-July 29-2009
By Laurena Weninger – Osoyoos Times
“Our best B.C. model to emulate is Princeton,” said Eike Scheffler, director of the South Interior Recreational Equine Centre (SIREC). “They have their PXA, a successful community supported viable society that is (a) highly respected and well managed business model.”
Osoyoos’s Desert Park re-opened this spring, under a temporary contract with SIREC.
The organization has been pouring bucks into the facility, hoping to build it into a year-round horse training facility accommodating up to 200 horses on site, while providing and enhancing recreational activities including soccer and baseball and attracting special events and entertainment such as concerts, fairs, sports tournaments and equestrian competitions.
But SIREC doesn’t have it in the bag yet.
Other groups have come forward – such as W.A.L.L. Music and Entertainment of which former Osoyoos mayor Tom Shields is a member– with their own ideas for the facility.
In the meantime, it’s easy enough to look to other communities to see how viable such a facility could be.
Princeton’s John Bey has been with the PXA – the Princeton Exhibition Association – for a very long time.
“I’ve been there since ’63, actually,” he said about his history with the group that runs the exhibition grounds. “We built it right up from scratch.”
The association is non-profit and oversees all activities that take place at the Princeton Race Track.
Annually, the events they host include Princeton Racing Days, a fall fair and a professional rodeo. Each event is run by a user group.
“They pay a user fee to the PXA,” Bey said, adding that money goes to manage the grounds, keep up on maintenance and buy supplies.
The user groups also work to raise funds and volunteer to help make sure the facility has all it needs to continue to function well.
They also have boarding and training facilities.
“To be a success you have to get as many venues as you can in there.”
The Town of Princeton, which has a population of about 2,600, pays each year to keep the grounds going, but Bey wouldn’t say how much.
He did say his group continues to convince the town to chip in by proving the value of what they do.
“We bring in well over $1 million a year in business to the town.”
Bey, who is also president of Princeton Racing Days and the Interior Horse Racing Association, explained that the other B.C. facilities that are similar to Princeton’s centre include one in Kamloops and one in Vernon.
Between the PXA and the other facilities, they ran 14 horse race days last year.
Ultimately, Bey would like to see as many as 40 days in the Interior each year.
The PXA is successful, Bey said, but it’s not without its challenges.
It closed down for a five-year span, re-opening in 2004.
The group found itself with a lack of horses and jockeys, likely because the prize money offered was just too low.
But with some planning and some saving, the group was able to increase its prize money purses.
Money from the provincial gaming commission has helped.
Bey said he is quite familiar with SIREC’s plan and he is excited.
“I think they’re on the right track,” he said.
But even though there are some similarities between the PXA and SIREC’s proposal, there are some big differences, too, said SIREC’s president, Allan Carswell.
He said SIREC’s approach is an unusual model.
“In most cases, they are run by non-profits,” he said, adding that Desert Park is supposed to be for-profit and it really isn’t just about horse racing, either.
“On our side, racing has always been a very distant dream,” Carswell said, adding racing will be just a small part of the whole picture.
It may be years before racing is re-established at Desert Park and SIREC really wants the focus to be on a whole range of activities.
There will also be no money provided by the Town of Osoyoos to run the centre.
“The Town of Osoyoos made it mandatory a society could not run it,” Carswell said. “It had to be a corporation.”
Under the current, six-month lease agreement with the Town, SIREC will have the lead role in management and maintenance responsibilities of the park including recreation and special events.
Preparations on the site have been going on for months, to ready the equestrian facilities, which include a 5/8-of-a-mile race track, an extensive network of equestrian trails and jumps, several horse boarding barns, turnout areas and round pens.
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