The establishment and operation of a standardbred horse owners association for the purposes of:

(a) fostering and advancing the highest standards of integrity in the cultural, economic and equestrian interests related to the ownership of standardbred horse owners;

(b) carrying on research and supporting investigation into any aspect of standardbred racing to foster the integrity of all participants in the ownership or management of standardbred race horse;

(c) promoting generally the advancement and benefit of standardbred horse ownership.

An initial group of approximately fifty active owners have agreed to be founding members of SHOP Ontario. SHOP Ontario has been incorporated as a legal not for profit corporation and will be governed by a Board of Directors of nine individuals. The first Chairman of SHOP Ontario is Mr. Tom Brodhurst and the Executive Director is Mr. Scott Rowe.

Mr. Brodhurst commented “I’m pleased to try and provide leadership to this new organization dedicated to emphasizing complete honesty in our industry and most particularly the elimination of any use of non therapeutic drugs or chemicals within standardbred racing. I believe owners need to speak out with a strong unified voice and actively support complete integrity in our racing here in Ontario. The formation of SHOP Ontario demonstrates that owners want high standards of integrity in our industry.”

SHOP Ontario will support efforts of all parties involved in the standardbred industry to strengthen all regulations to enforce honest participation in standardbred racing and protect public confidence in our racing product. In this regard, SHOP Ontario plans to petition the industry regulators to institute clear and strong Owner Responsibility Regulations which will include suspensions and significant financial penalties directed at owners of horses testing positive for major drug violations.