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Proud,
Grateful Careers,
Training An 8-Year Odyssey Apologies for
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An 8-Year Odyssey
A report entitled Crossroads 1996 published by Cloverdale Raceway and the B.C. Standardbred Association on January 31, 1996, demonstrated the decline and even bankruptcy of tracks where governments failed to rectify punitive taxation, or to permit racing a share of other gaming revenues. This was the beginning of a campaign to follow the lead of Ontario, Alberta and other jurisdictions, to eliminate the 3% tax on pari-mutuel gross, a burden unique to horse racing, and to permit slot machines at racetracks. This British Columbia tax was removed in 2001. The final approval for slot machines at Fraser Downs was voted by Surrey City Council on December 16, 2003. Here are excerpts from the 1996 report:
In has been an exercise in survival since 1996. The track was lengthened to 5/8ths mile as Cloverdale Raceway became Fraser Downs, and the improvement to facilities has been significant, consuming substantial investment. The simulcast explosion throughout horse racing has been of benefit to fans, track operators and horsemen. Government has helped along the way, working with the industry to divert portions of the former pari-mutuel tax into both purses and capital improvements. But a phrase we used in 1996 - “clinging to the precipice” - has been a fact of life for almost a decade. |
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The campaign to win municipal and provincial approval for the project now under construction at Fraser Downs began in 1995. The late Jim Keeling Jr. designed a research project to track the damage government lotteries and other gaming was doing to horse racing all over North America, and what other jurisdictions were doing to reverse the trend.