In the fall of 2015 the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) engaged Deloitte to survey Ontario race horse owners, breeders and trainers to collect data on horse racing. Deloitte worked closely with OMAFRA and key industry stakeholders to develop the survey. The survey focussed on collecting data on expenditures, employment and horse supply.

Survey responses were received from 403 of approximately 6300 licensed owners, breeders and trainers in the province (approx. 6% response rate). The results presented in this document are extracted directly from the expenditure data that was included in the responses to the survey. The survey was posted online for over three weeks during October and November 2015. Deloitte anonymized the data received and survey respondents were not able to be identified.

OMAFRA would like to thank all the horsepeople who completed the survey for providing valuable data and also thank the industry associations for supporting the survey and distributing it to their members.

The results of the survey provided valuable insights about the current size of the horse racing industry and will be used in the work underway to research the impact of horse racing on the Ontario economy.

An Executive Summary of results can be found here.