Western Montana Fair will not be held in August 2011 – Horse Racing news
It has just recently been made public that Missoula will not be having any live horse racing events in this season.
Therefore, Western Montana Fair will not see the light of day for the fourth time in the last five years. The decision has been made in an effort to rejuvenate further the sport of horse racing for the year 2012 and attempt to give it a winning chance at
revival.
The Western Montana Fair is just not ready yet to call in crowds and become a success despite the fact that it has been shy of coming live for so many years. The preparations are not made and it is not cost effective to engage in the activity that was scheduled
to take place this year in the month of August.
Missoula is not new to the difficulties faced by the horse racing industry. This industry has been facing a significant number of challenges since the time recession hit the nation.
Already, the sport was not attracting younger crowds as the new generation do not find horseracing exciting enough. To make matters worse, many racetracks across the nation had to face the problem of finding alternatives that would stabilize costs and generate
revenue.
As a result, many turned to alternatives like gambling expansion by adding slot machines and off track betting etcetera. These struggling racetracks found a means to generate revenue and attract crowds at their live horse racing events through these methods.
Therefore, where many racetracks had to be shut down because they were not being profitable, many survived. The Western Montana Fair is going through the same situation currently.
Toni Hinton of the turf club expressed his regret and explained why live horse racing will not be taking place this year in the following words, “It was everything together: the shortage of horses, trying to do everything in three months, not getting accurate
(funding) numbers ...We thought about it, but then I thought, you know, instead of just scraping by this year, I guess if we did it in 2012 and the turf club was involved, we have an opportunity to make this an every-year thing again.”
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