The Fort Erie Race Track is the jewel of my community, but it’s under attack. Woodbine Entertainment Group is directly targeting the Fort Erie track, hoping to ultimately put it out of business. This behaviour has gone so far that the Fort Erie track has filed a complaint with the Canadian trade commission on targeted anti-competition behaviour from Woodbine.

Ontario tracks should be working together for the betterment of horse racing. Woodbine is actively restricting the ability of a horse stabled at Woodbine to be eligible to run at Fort Erie. Woodbine refuses to work proactively with Fort Erie in the scheduling of their Triple Crown races, directly ignoring the requests of Fort Erie to create a structure that would allow both Triple Crown races to be highlighted in the province of Ontario, and they continue to run B-track-level races even though they receive funding as an A-level track.

Woodbine has been granted tens of millions of dollars in purse money from the provincial government. Woodbine uses those government funds and their government-granted monopoly on wagering to do whatever they like, ignoring the impact it has on other tracks, making it very difficult for other tracks to achieve their goals or even operate. There’s no word other than “bullying” to describe this behaviour. Woodbine is bullying smaller tracks and using their power within this government and their regulatory body to get away with it.

It’s time this government steps up, puts an end to Woodbine’s behaviour and truly supports horse racing across Ontario.