By Bill Finley
The New Jersey Racing Commission has approved the state's 2020 Thoroughbred racing dates, which include an expanded schedule at the Meadowlands. The Meadowlands is scheduled to hold 19 cards next year and the racing there will feature dirt events for the first time since 2009.
After holding Standardbred races only in 2010 and 2011, the Meadowlands resumed running Thoroughbred races in 2012, but the only surface available was the track's grass course and the meets were typically limited to a handful of days. Monmouth Chairman and CEO Dennis Drazin has been pushing for a longer meet at the Meadowlands, one that includes dirt racing, for years. The sticking point had been the cost of converting the harness track to a Thoroughbred track, which is estimated at about $1 million. Drazin said that he and Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural have reached an agreement that covers the costs.
Drazin believes that a stronger meet at the Meadowlands will help revitalize New Jersey racing, which was aided this year by a $10-million purse supplement from the state.
“Perhaps I've been around too long, but I remember the days when we had a circuit and year-round racing here,” Drazin said. “We gave horsemen an opportunity to stay in New Jersey and participate here year-round. Obviously, that's no longer viable with the closing of Garden State and Atlantic City. I am trying to give the horsemen what they want, which is a longer season and an opportunity to participate longer here. The Jersey breeders want it probably more than anyone else. You look at an industry and you want to provide people with an opportunity to succeed. A longer season is a part of it.”
Monmouth Park will race 56 days, opening May 2 and closing Sept. 27. The 2019 Monmouth meet consisted of 61 days. The Meadowlands will open Oct. 2 and finish up Dec. 5. There were just seven days of racing at the Meadowlands in 2019. There will be a total of 75 racing dates in New Jersey in 2020, seven more than 2019.
Drazin is optimistic that the Meadowlands Thoroughbred signal will be a popular one.
“In my estimation, and people can disagree, I don't think there is a really strong night signal out there at that time of year on regular basis that bettors can follow,” he said. “The night signal at the Meadowlands, if you do it right and build on it, it's not going to be amazing year one, but over a five to 10-year period it can grow to a point where it's a meaningful portion of our revenue scheme here in New Jersey. I think the night signal up there can be meaningful.”
New Jersey racing regulations give Thoroughbreds precedent when it comes to the Meadowlands fall dates. With Thoroughbreds all but absent over the last 10 years, the Meadowlands has built a strong harness racing stakes program during the fall meet. Gural said he is hopeful that the Thoroughbred faction will shorten the 2020 meet by a few days so that the Meadowlands can find a spot on the calendar for some of their major stakes.
“We've talked to Dennis about shortening the meet, which would allow us to have some stakes races,” Gural said. “The stakes races we have this weekend are important to us so we hope we can make a deal to shorten the Thoroughbred meet. We'll see how it goes and reevaluate it after the year.”
Monmouth has also announced that the GI Haskell Invitational will be run July 18. That will mark the second straight year it has been held on a Saturday after traditionally being run on Sundays.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
