Members of the Lakeshore Horse Racing Association are keeping their fingers crossed Premier Doug Ford will come through for them.
A member of the group, Tom Bain, said the association decided at a meeting last Thursday night to send a letter off to the premier asking for a three-month extension to negotiate its entry into the new governance structure, Ontario Racing.
The deadline to join is Monday, April 1.
Related story: Local horse racing holds firm as deadline looms
Leamington Raceway still has a two-year contract to host horse racing, with transfer payments to support operations and the purse. After that, Bain admitted it is difficult to say what will happen to horse racing in Essex County.
"Certainly we'll try to continue onward," he pledged.
Bain said the local track would have no control over purse money, race dates, or even whether racing would continue at Leamington Raceway.
"Our big fear is that if we sign it gives total control to the Woodbine Entertainment Group," he said. "They would have the right to stop racing in Leamington simply by a decision of their board and we have not even one member on the board representing small tracks."
Bain said he fears that would devastate the horse racing industry in Southwestern Ontario if a fair deal cannot be reached.
When asked if he feels Leamington Raceway has been treated unfairly, Bain suggested the association wished it received "some of the breaks that some of the other tracks have got" including revenue from casinos and slot machines.
"We considered ourselves an extension of the old Windsor Raceway, and we saw none of that money," he said.
- With files from Paul Pedro.
