Fort Erie Race Track purses get a raise after funding dispute ends

Prize money will rise 15 per cent this season, with average purses per race card climbing from nearly $127,000 last year to more than $146,000, according to the Fort Erie Race Track.

Ontario Racing, which the province recognizes as the governing body for horse racing, announced Thursday that it is immediately directing more than $10 million in additional funding to Ontario’s thoroughbred industry.

The money is part of $35 million in new annual funding for all three racing breeds–thoroughbred, standardbred and quarter horse–over each of the next five years, after funding had been stalled since late 2025.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and Ontario Racing had approved the new agreement, but Woodbine Entertainment, Ontario’s largest racing operator and the only party with veto power over the deal, held out over how the $35 million would be divided.

Track spokesperson James Culic told Fort Erie Radio in June that the track had enough money to operate through this season, but warned 2027 was in jeopardy if the deal fell through. Rising hay, fuel and operating costs had already pushed some horse people out of the industry.

Because the agreement was only finalized in June, Ontario Racing says the new money will be blended into purses for the remainder of the season, and purse levels through March 2027 will include funding that wasn’t available when the meet opened May 31.

Culic told CBC News the track is “not ready to announce the exact details yet, but we are going to be increasing purse funding.”

“The breeders, the trainers, the owners…more money is going to be flowing to them,” Culic said.

Provincewide, the thoroughbred allocation includes a $5-million increase to the Thoroughbred Improvement Program, which supports Ontario breeding, and $4.5 million for races restricted to Ontario-bred and sired horses at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto.

Standardbred racing will receive more than $14 million, and the quarter-horse sector gets a $500,000 boost.

Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates, who raised the stalled deal repeatedly at Queen’s Park, said in a statement the agreement puts the industry “on the path to undoing the damage that was done from the delay.”

Ontario Racing says the increase also responds to inflation of about 25 per cent since the province signed its long-term funding agreement with the industry back in 2018. The track says it supports more than 125 full-time employees, several hundred horse people and nearly 300 indirect jobs.

The 2026 season runs until October 20.

The 91st Prince of Wales Stakes, the second jewel in the Canadian Triple Crown, will be held Labour Day, September 7, with a $400,000 purse–the richest prize on any dirt track in Canada.

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