When I analyze the Fort Erie situation, I get an image from a road runner cartoon, where the escaping character runs over a cliff and grasps onto a tiny bush to prevent a catastrophic fall. One by one, the roots of the bush pop out ( appropriate sound effects) and after the final root releases, the road runner dangles motionless in mid-air, then plummets downward.
One of the final roots for Fort Erie popped out yesterday. In an attempt to keep the track going for a 112th season, the Fort Erie Economic Development and Tourism Corporation (EDTC) offered a non-refundable down payment of $2.25 Million to Nordic Gaming, the owners of the track. This was meant to be a downpayment for the track, part of a $35 million offer, with the rest of the money, ideally, to come from the Provincial government who would hold a lien on the property ( or something along those lines).
Nordic, however did not respond by the deadline of 11 am Monday February 23, but did send a letter sometime after to EDTC suggesting it had some problems with the offer. We’re hearing accusations of not bargaining in good faith.
This is a hard one to figure. Nordic is claiming losses of up to $4 million in each of the past several seasons, so wouldn’t they want to stop the bleeding, grab a few bucks and get out?
The clock sure is ticking and right now it does look gloomy for the border track and the several hundred horsepeople who try and scrape out a living there.
Meanwhile, a surprising face is leading all the harness drivers at Woodbine. As we check the standings this morning, we see that Randy Waples has a comfortable lead in first. Through Sunday’s racing, Waples has 45 wins in 281 starts, putting him eight wins ahead of Mario Baillargeon in second. It’s not all that surprising that Waples is winning a lot of races lately; he’s a skilled and veteran driver, but hasn’t led the troops for several years. The usual suspects – Jody Jamieson, Rick Zeron and Chris Christoforou are all well behind Waples right now…JJ has 30 wins, Zeron – 25 and CC 28 .
The 43 year-old Waples is the son of lengendary driver Ron Waples ( who once let me drive his Triple Crown winner Ralph Hanover, but that’s another story). Whereas the elder Waples has always been a quiet, dignified and reserved statesman of the game, son Randy has always had a much more outgoing personality. He does great impressions ( his Scarface is brilliant) and loves being on tv. Randy has television sit-com good looks and a great energy on behalf of the sport and I think Woodbine has missed the boat with him. Harness racing is desperately in need of an over-the-top personality to pin it’s tail on and Waples is the perfect guy. A few years ago, while being interviewed live on a racing show, Randy didn’t edit himself as scrupulously as he should have and he sent out a message to A Lotta Vagina, the rudely named character from an Austin Powers movie. I can probably print that name here with no negative consequences (well, that remains to be seen..) but Woodbine authorities were not impressed and Waples was hit with a serious suspension for his lack of taste.
Not that he should have been rewarded for such silliness, but if you look around the world of sports, it’s Manny Ramirez, Dennis Rodman, Alex Ovechkin, Sean Avery and John Daly who, in spite of their personal excesses and flawed lives, attract the fans.
Waples used to stand straight up in his sulky after winning races, no more a colourful gesture than the idiosyncratic leap from his horse created by the great jockey Avelino Gomez. But Waples has been discouraged from excessive displays of his likeable character and harness racing is much worse off for it.
Let’s put it this way – who’s more recognizable in this market – Chris Bosh, Mats Sundin, Vernon Wells, Pinball Clemons or Randy Waples? I’ll bet Randy can shop all day at his local WalMart and never be recognized.
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