To the Editor:
As a participant of standardbred racing I find appalling the unjust treatment of the standardbred industry by the Sask party which is unprecedented by any other government!
I have been a owner, trainer, driver for more than 20 years and through those years I spend $250 on fuel, approximately $100 on hotels, $50-100 in restaurant per race day if there were 15 days of racing in Yorkton I alone spend $6,750-$7,500 per year to race in Yorkton as I drive from Swift current every week with only two horses!
I also spend $60 per week on prepared feed from mid march pretraining to mid September in total About 24 weeks totalling $1,440 and between $2,000 and $4,000 on vet services, fuel, supplies and services to care for my horses the rest of the year in the premier's home riding.
You may not know but my horses do pretty well but with the purses in Saskatchewan I don't make back this more than $10,000 that I spend per year and with a $200,000 government grant I put more than five per cent of that $200,000 back into the Yorkton and Swift Current economies alone, as other participants must buy all their feed and pay more vet fees than I do.
I believe it would be in the present government's best interest to reconsider the harness racing grant as harness racing is a vital industry for participating cities and the agriculture industry in Saskatchewan.
Kevin Siever, Tax payer, land owner, horse trainer, horse owner, Swift Current, SK
