Ontario Racing holds successful two-day conference, bringing together industry experts, participants

Written by: Steven Loung, Woodbine Racetrack

Ontario Racing hosted a two-day conference last week that brought together industry experts and participants to discuss racetrack surfaces and marketing best practices and ideas.

The event, held at Grand River Raceway’s GrandWay Event Space, kicked off on Wednesday, Sept. 25 with a Racetrack Surfaces Symposium. On Thursday, Sept. 26 Ontario Racing members gathered for the Annual Members Meeting in the morning, followed by a Marketing and Operations Summit in the afternoon.

“Ontario Racing is governed by a representative Board of Directors, and those directors are supported by a variety of committees and working groups,” said Gordon Thain, Ontario Racing’s Executive Director. “Those committees and working groups have tasked OR over the past several years with providing more opportunities to those within our industry to get together and share best practices.

“So, under that strategic thought, we have, over the last couple of years, had various industry get-togethers and have incrementally grown them to where, for this year, it became a two-day event with specific outcomes assigned for each group with the overlying purpose behind it all being to get smart folks in the room and give them a chance to learn a few things and to share some best practices.”

The Racetrack Surfaces Symposium opened with a keynote presentation by Dan Coon, of Coon & Associates LLC who have built, reconfigured and maintained racetracks across the globe. The engaging Coon was followed by Dr. Jeff Thomason, who connected racetrack surfaces with equine health, and Kim Crawford, who shared practical insights on maintaining half-mile surfaces.

After lunch, Tom Thoume and the team from Thoume Construction Ltd. took the group out onto the Grand River Raceway surface where they demonstrated the Level Best Grader Blade and 3D Grading System. Grand River Raceway’s Doug McCaig gave an overview of the expansion to a five-eighths mile racetrack and sponsor Steve Andersen reviewed the services Equine Equipment offers to racetrack operators.

The event wrapped up with a Horse Person’s Panel featuring Anthony Haughan, Mike Keeling and Paul MacDonell.

“It was a great learning experience,” said Jenna MacDonell, Raceway Manager at Grand River Raceway. “I won’t claim to be an expert on tracks at all, by any means, but, like one of the participants said, we need consistency, and we need a good track and I just think it was a great opportunity to get everybody together.”

MacDonell also added that there was particular value to be found in the Racetrack Surfaces Symposium because the information that was being offered is not readily available online or elsewhere.

“It’s not really a topic you can just Google and find out more information,” she said. “All of those guys in the room have years and years of experience. And, for people like me, I know I get a lot of feedback from the industry and it’s just good to be able to know more about the topic.”

Day 2, on Sept. 26, opened with the Annual Members Meeting, followed by the Marketing and Operations Summit. During the Summit, Ontario Racing staff provided updates on ongoing projects such as the launch of the Ownership page on the Ontario Racing website and the industry employment support initiative. Lori Shea, Senior Product Development and Marketing Manager – Horse Racing at OLG, provided an update on the OLG-led marketing initiatives and Greg Martin, Vice President – Wagering at Woodbine Entertainment, gave an overview of wagering trends.

The highlight of the Marketing and Operations Summit came during the interactive session which saw each members share initiatives that were successful in the past year, highlight plans for the coming year and explore ways to collaborate with each other and Ontario Racing.  in the room talk about initiatives they have going on at their respective tracks with a chance for feedback from others.

“I always think it’s a great idea to get the industry together so we can start working together,” said MacDonell. “When you put a bunch of people who have been track operators together, they can really begin to share good ideas.”

Overall, representatives from all 20 Ontario Racing member racetracks and horse persons associations participated in at least one of the three events. The members were joined at the Racetrack Surfaces Symposium by training centre and private farm operators, horse people, equine veterinarians, and representatives from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO).

“It was great getting everybody together and I think people got a lot out of the sessions,” said Ian Fleming, Chair of the Racetrack Operations Committee, the group that spearheaded the Racetrack Surfaces Symposium, and General Manager of Clinton Raceway. “Everybody who attended had one common goal. On the surfaces, it was to make the tracks as safe as we can for the horses and for the marketing pieces it was, collectively, what can we do to get more people out to the tracks? Everybody was working together and everybody had the same goal.”

Ontario Racing would like to thank all of the speakers and participants who made the two-day event possible and looks forward to hosting future events that bring participants together around key industry issues.

Image: Woodbine Racetrack