Looks like a sure bet

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/05/2021 (1946 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When it came to professional sports, it was slim pickings at this time last year.

There was Korean baseball, Germany’s Bundesliga soccer, and many trips down memory lane as desperate sports channels were forced to fill air time with “classic” games.

So when Assiniboia Downs kicked off its season on May 25, becoming the first horse racing track in the country to open for business during the COVID-19 pandemic, it had an opportunity to attract a new audience of people starved for sports.

While none of its new, or longtime fans, were able to sit in the stands, they were able to open their wallets and place bets. After 50 days of live racing, the Downs shattered its wagering record with a mark of $63,264,000 for the season, thanks to bettors from around the world. The previous record, $53,394,913, was set way back in 1981 in a 135-day season.

Now that the NHL, NBA, MLB, and others are back in action, will the good times continue to roll at the Downs? The facility begins a 50-day season on May 17 and just like last year, will run races Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in hopes of encountering less competition for the wagering dollar on those nights.

“We have optimism, but our expectations are conservative. We know the content has returned around the world en masse,” said Downs CEO Darren Dunn in a phone interview.

“Technically, the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday schedule was worthy of trying again, without question. This will be a very, very important year to establish a proof of concept, that in fact this schedule, that was specifically designed to find a niche in the racing world where there’s less competition than our previous schedule of Wednesday, Friday, Saturday night. The term I’ve been using is stickiness. We’re cautiously optimistic that we have the kind of stickiness, the retention of our partners and customers from last year.”

The biggest challenge in preparing for 2021 has been getting a jockey colony for the season. In normal times, the colony features around 18 jockeys who come to Winnipeg predominantly from Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and the United States.

“With the federal travel ban to the Caribbean that was enacted in the winter — we had our 17-person jockey colony — literally, with that federal direction, it was cut to three in a moment’s notice,” said Dunn.

“That caused a lot of challenge, knowing full well that we could only realistically get jockeys from within North America. We had to be aggressive to get jockeys from the United States and other parts of Canada without cannibalizing our neighbour race tracks. It was a tricky puzzle to put together.”

“We’re not planning at any point for crowds to return. Should that change, we’ll review the opportunity. But at this point, our expectation is for fans to return en masse in 2022′ — Darren Dunn

It was a problem 27-year-old Barbados native Antonio Whitehall saw coming. Last season’s champion jockey decided to spend the winter in Winnipeg to ensure he’d be able to compete at the Downs in 2021. Whitehall’s summer will look much different than last year’s, though. In 2020, he raced Monday-Wednesday at the Downs then hopped on a plane to Edmonton to race there for the weekend before returning to Winnipeg Monday morning to do it all over again. For now, he’ll only be racing in Winnipeg as the inter-provincial quarantine rules won’t allow him to jump back and forth.

“Last year most of the foreign riders couldn’t get up here because the airports were closed. I didn’t think it was a wise idea for me to go back home and put myself in a situation that those guys were in, so I stayed,” Whitehall said.

“I made the right decision to stay because they still haven’t been able to come here. I probably would’ve been in that boat so I’m glad I stayed. It was good, actually. I like the place. It’s a nice environment… It was a really good experience for me to be in the snow, too.”

When Whitehall and his opponents enter the starting stalls for the first time on May 17, there still won’t be anyone in the stands to cheer them on. Fans will once again have to settle for watching and betting on HPIbet.com. Dunn said there are currently no plans in place to open the doors to spectators by the time the final race goes down on Sept. 8.

“We’re not planning at any point for crowds to return,” he said.

“Should that change, we’ll review the opportunity. But at this point, our expectation is for fans to return en masse in 2022.”

The Downs has already shown it can adapt and succeed in a pandemic, as it hasn’t had any positive cases at the facility and has been able to survive financially. That doesn’t mean there’s no nerves over what Year 2 of racing in a pandemic can bring.

“Make no mistake about it, having an understanding of what to expect is a dramatic difference from where I was at this point last year. However, the challenge that COVID provides, I’m not going to kid you, I’m holding my breath already to get through to September, even though we have all the protocols in place,” Dunn said.

“I’ve certainly watched what’s happened to the other leagues, NHL, MLB, NBA, and the challenges they’ve had. Their wherewithal to protect their participants far exceeds what I have available, but we’ve been diligent and we’ve been successful. So, away we go in two weeks.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31