Jim Lawson | Horse Racing Free Tips

Lawson: Ministry Of Health Doesn’t ‘Even Want To Try To Understand,’ Won’t Engage In Dialogue

Woodbine Entertainment CEO Jim Lawson is fed up with the ongoing crisis at Ontario racetracks. The Ontario Ministry of Health has not given the green-light for racing to resume in the province, making Ontario the only major horse racing jurisdiction in the world to not have resumed live racing.

“Racing in the afternoon is safer than training in the morning. This is the ironic part,” Lawson told the Toronto Sun this week. “But they don't even want to try to understand why that is.”

Lawson said the Ministry of Health refuses to engage in any sort of dialogue about resuming live racing in Ontario, despite the fact that indoor sports like professional hockey have been allowed to resume.

Over 1,500 horses and 1,000 individuals have been training and preparing for the 2021 race season at Woodbine alone, and the horsemen are beyond frustrated. Many owners have begun pushing trainers to send horses south of the border to the United States, and backstretch workers' jobs and livelihoods are in jeopardy.

“I am so frustrated,” Lawson continued. “I can't explain to you why there is no dialogue. But there's nothing. The left hand's not talking to the right hand and we are frustrated. (Horse racing) people are taking it out on me and I'm kind of fed up. I've done everything with the Ministry of Health, and there's just nothing.”

Woodbine Hosting Pop-Up COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic For Local Community, Backstretch Workers

Woodbine Entertainment is proud to host a Pop-Up COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic at Woodbine Racetrack, which is located in a 'hot spot', beginning on Wednesday, May 5, 2021 at 10 a.m. for the Rexdale Community.

The vaccine clinic, which is supported by the North Etobicoke Community Cluster Partners, will operate for a minimum of three days and is open to individuals 18 years and older in 2021 and living in 'hot spot' communities in M9V and M9W.

“We are very proud and grateful to be able to host this much needed pop-up clinic at Woodbine Racetrack for the Rexdale community,” said Jim Lawson, CEO, Woodbine Entertainment. “We look forward to working with our community partners over the coming days to deliver a positive experience that will benefit people throughout Rexdale.”

The Pop-Up COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic will also be open to frontline essential workers who provide daily care to the horses stabled at Woodbine Racetrack.

“These workers are critical to the wellbeing of more than 1,000 horses and obviously cannot work from home. Many of them live in dormitories on our property and in the surrounding areas,” said Lawson.

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COVID-19 Outbreak At Woodbine Closes One Barn, Increases Monitoring In Others

With the start of the 2021 race meet delayed by a provincial stay-at-home order, Woodbine has been dealt another blow this week as a COVID-19 outbreak forced the closure of Barn 33. According to the Daily Racing Form, the horses in that barn have been shipped out temporarily, and all the personnel are in quarantine.

Several workers in other barns have shown positive tests for COVID-19 as well, and CEO Jim Lawson said increased monitoring will be taking place in those barns. Other measures include medical mask mandates and a push for vaccination of backstretch workers.

“We're going into a critical period here for the next few weeks, until we can get [everybody] vaccinated,” Lawson told the DRF. “We've taken every measure that we can, and we'll get through this.”

No date has been officially named for the start of Woodbine's 2021 season. The current stay-at-home order is scheduled to be lifted on May 20, but there is no guarantee the order won't be extended.

With Ontario Extending Stay-at-Home Order, Woodbine Opening Up in the Air

The Ontario government announced earlier this week that a province-wide COVID-19-related lockdown has been extended to at least May 20, dashing hopes that Woodbine will be able to open for business any time soon. The meet was supposed to begin Apr. 17.

“There is a crisis right now in the Toronto area and we're right in the middle of it,” said Woodbine CEO Jim Lawson. “They are running out of intensive care beds and the numbers are not going down. The good news is that more vaccines are coming in May, which will help a lot. People keep asking me when we are going to open, and I tell them to remain optimistic, but people are getting tired of Jim Lawson telling them he is hopeful.”

On Friday, health officials in Ontario reported more than 4,500 new COVID-19 cases and another 34 deaths linked to the disease.

Though he is hoping the track will be permitted to operate after May 20, Lawson says he cannot be certain that Woodbine will be allowed to race on that date. If the COVID situation does not improve in Ontario, the lockdown could be extended again. Another possibility is that the lockdown will be lifted but the Toronto area will fall into the “gray zone” category, under which racing is still not permitted. The Woodbine meet was cut short last year, ending on Nov. 26 when Toronto was declared a gray zone area.

“If the province comes out of the stay-at-home order and goes back to the same restrictions we had previously, then horse racing would not be permitted,” Lawson said. “Gray is the most stringent color code. When they go back to the color-coded system, Toronto would likely fall into the gray zone, and that would be a problem for Woodbine Thoroughbreds.”

Since the track closed early last year, Lawson has been pleading Woodbine's case, arguing that it is hypocritical to allow the NHL, where the games are played indoors, to operate while horse racing, an outdoor sport, is not allowed. Lawson said he has had talks with the local health department and representatives of the province, but has not been given the answers he was looking for.

“I'm banging my head against the wall,” Lawson said.

After there was just one case of COVID-19 all last year at Woodbine, a recent outbreak has occurred on the backstretch. Woodbine confirmed last week that 15 people working in the stabling area have tested positive for COVID-19.

With so much uncertainty surrounding the meet, the fear is that a large number of horses will leave Woodbine in order to race in the U.S. and may not come back. Another concern is that trainers who had been planning to race at Woodbine will instead stay home. Lawson said that Graham Motion was planning to have a string at the track this year, but has informed the racing department that because of the shutdown he will not be coming.

Woodbine's leading trainer, Mark Casse, has shipped some horses to Woodbine, but fewer than he normally would have at this point.

“We have about 35, 40 horses there and normally we would have about 75,” Casse said. “We have stopped sending horses up. There's been talk of maybe pulling some more horses out of there, which we probably will do. I could see us possibly sending a few to New York, but with a lot of the horses I have [at Woodbine], it's because they are Canadian-bred or owned.”

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