Woodbine boss bets cheating has hurt wagering business

Posted on Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

Rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs in horse racing is not only a threat to the unsuspecting doped-up animals but to the industry itself.

That is the impassioned view of Woodbine Entertainment Group chairman David Willmot, a longtime crusader for cleaning up the sport.

“We talk to our bettors, (drug cheating) is a big issue,” Willmot, who runs the country’s largest racing operation, said yesterday in an interview. “We’ve seen double-digit declines in (wagering) the past 18 months and it’s not just because people wanted to stop betting.

“Something happened to make them stop, especially the big bettors. They are voting with their wallets.”

Willmot is adamant that trainers need to assist regulators in cleaning up their sport. Otherwise, free-falling wagering will threaten all involved.
“This is a horsemen-made problem,” said Willmot, who stressed that while harness racing is in the eye of the storm, thoroughbreds are not immune to the problem.

“The racetracks and the regulators are doing their very best to deal with it. But if the horsemen don’t become totally vigilant and do everything they can to minimize this, they might not have an industry. It is that threatening. (Toronto Sun)

tags: Horse Racing, Woodbine

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"Woodbine boss bets cheating has hurt wagering business" was posted on Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Horse Racing Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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