Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Quebec Tracks File Bankruptcy

June 25, 2008

Attractions Hippiques, the private company that took over operation of Quebec's four horse-racing tracks from the provincial government less than two years ago, filed for creditor protection yesterday and indefinitely suspended live racing at Hippodrome de Montréal. Operations are now in the hands of trustee RSM Richter.

The news stunned Quebec's horse-racing community, which suddenly finds itself without its marquee track and main revenue stream.

"This is drastic," said racehorse owner Rick Karper, a former head of the provincial horsemen's association. "I hope it's a bluff and somebody will continue the racing. Purses were guaranteed in the contract (to transfer ownership to Attractions Hippiques). Someone should live up to that contractual obligation. The livelihood of an awful lot of people is at stake."

Attractions Hippiques said on its website it needs to restructure because of the current impasse with Loto-Québec, its partner in the ludoplex gaming centres opened late last year in Quebec City and Trois Rivières, which to date have proved to be multimillion-dollar busts.

VLTs at the underperforming ludoplexes are generating only 30 per cent of anticipated revenue, the company said, and as a result it cannot meet its obligations for horse race purses.

Under the terms of its deal with the government, Attractions Hippiques was supposed to pay $24 million in purses in 2008.

The company, which this year reported running a monthly deficit of $750,000, says its inability to secure a site north of Montreal to relocate Hippodrome de Montréal has severely compromised its finances, since it can't tap into revenue from 1,300 additional VLTs until the track is built and operational. It estimates that revenue loss at $20 million a year.

Owned by Senator Paul Massicotte, Attractions Hippiques won out over a half-dozen firms that bid for the right to operate Quebec's four tracks.