into 2027<\/a>.<\/p>\nDave Briggs, a communications specialist with Ontario Racing, says any decision on next year\u2019s racing season is premature, and his organization has received word from OLG that the casino will remain in its current location next season.<\/p>\n
\u201cOntario racetracks must submit their request for 2026 race dates to the Ontario Racing board with enough time to get those dates approved and sent to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario by the end of this year,\u201d he said. \u201cThat process begins in the fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Briggs also emphasized that, if Georgian Downs closes, local stables will be fine \u2014 there are a dozen tracks in Ontario offering several levels of competition, including \u201cwhat many consider the greatest harness racetrack in the world: Woodbine Mohawk Park in Milton.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHorsepeople based in the area have long been blessed with considerable choice to race their horses in Ontario,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile the end of horse racing at Georgian Downs \u2014 if that happens \u2014 would be sad given the great history of horse racing in the area started by the opening of Barrie Raceway in 1965, the good news is the purses offered now at Georgian Downs would simply be redistributed to other Ontario racetracks and available to horsepeople in the Barrie area to try to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of the province\u2019s racetracks are west of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). With the growth and development in the GTA stretching through the Barrie region, land for stables is at a premium and many owners have already moved closer to where both tracks and farmland are more plentiful, Briggs said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile having a local option to race horses is convenient, most of the horsepeople in the area have long raced horses all over Ontario where they can find the best opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gateway \u2014 a company based in British Columbia \u2014 took over the casino at Georgian Downs in July 2018, as one of its 31 casinos across Canada. It will continue to lease the Georgian Downs casino space until the new facility is ready \u2014 it has a target opening date of Jan. 31, 2028.<\/p>\n
Racing is scheduled for Aug. 30 and 31. For more information, visit ontarioracing.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While OLG has said racing would take place there in 2026 and 2027, neither Great Canadian Gaming nor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[49463,3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-101420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-innisfilolghorse-racinggeorgian-downsgreat-canadian-gamingontario-racinggreat-canadian-entertainment","9":"tag-racing","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}