Dennis Drazin

Monmouth Park, which has delayed the start of its racing season until July 3, has revised its stakes schedule to include 35 races totaling $5,050,000. The schedule's traditional anchor race, the $1-million GI TVG.com Haskell S. remains scheduled for July 18, but will not be run as an invitational in 2020. The nine-furlong race will be contested as a stakes race and nominations  will close June 26. The July 18 card will also feature the $300,000 GI United Nations S., GIII $300,000 Monmouth Cup S., $250,000 GIII Molly Pitcher S.,...

Dennis Drazin is a good man who has done much to keep racing alive in New Jersey, but his press statement released last Monday staggers the senses. The last paragraph of his statement reads, "I should also add that this indictment is particularly sad in that Jason Servis was my trainer. During my 45 years as an attorney, chairman of the NJRC, and racetrack operator, I have always advocated that cheating cannot be tolerated and I would never tolerate illegal conduct. My horses are being moved to Pat McBurney." This...

Choosing not to comment last week as the horse racing world responded en masse to the bombshell announcement of indictments against 27 figures in the sport, including high-profile trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, Darby Development CEO and Monmouth Park Operator Dennis Drazin has weighed in with a lengthy statement that was released Monday, shortly after Monmouth announced it will close and push back the start of its racing meet due to coronavirus concerns. The statement reads in part, "First and foremost, Monmouth Park and Darby Development, as well as...

Monmouth Park Racetrack will close for simulcasting and sports wagering beginning at 8 p.m. Monday, Mar. 16, as the State of New Jersey and the rest of the country continue to take proactive measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus). Wagering will continue as normal on 4NJBets.com as well as online sports betting apps. In addition, based on the recommendation of the Center for Disease Control to limit public gatherings to fewer than 50 people, Monmouth Park will postpone its opening day originally scheduled for May 2, 2020 until...

Valedictorian (Temple City), a two-time graded-stakes winner in 2019, has been named New Jersey-bred Horse of the Year, champion older female and champion turf runner by the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association of New Jersey. Trained by Kelly Breen for Epic Racing, the daughter of Smart N Classy (Smart Strike) posted a 9-1 upset of the GIII Suwannee River S. last February and added Monmouth Park's GIII Eatontown S.--won by her dam in 2005--as the odds-on favorite in June while also hitting the board in the GIII Honey Fox S. and GIII...

In an effort to promote integrity and legal compliance in the gaming industry, Seton Hall Law School will host a Gaming Law, Compliance and Integrity Bootcamp Mar. 9-11. The bootcamp will provide legal, compliance and ethics education to professionals working or seeking to work in the gaming space, along with law students aspiring to practice in the field. Funding for the program has been provided by GVC Foundation US, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting responsible gambling, sports integrity and corporate compliance in the U.S. "Seton Hall Law School, a leading...

Monmouth Park will hold the $1-million GI TVG.com Haskell Invitational July 18 during its 75th race meet, which is scheduled to begin on Saturday, May 2. A total of 63 stakes (12 graded and 11 restricted to New Jersey-breds) worth $7.3 million will be held over the Jersey Shore oval's 56 days of live racing. The 2020 Haskell card will feature six stakes races, two of which have received $100,000 purse increases--the now $300,000 GIII Monmouth Cup and the $250,000 GIII Molly Pitcher S. The GIII Iselin S., part of...

Darby Development LLC., the operator of Monmouth Park, has entered into a 10-year agreement with the Australian firm BetMakers in which BetMakers will manage and distribute fixed-odds betting on Monmouth's races, starting at this year's meet. For now, the agreement covers only Monmouth's races and New Jersey customers, but there is the potential for other jurisdictions to take fixed-odds betting on Monmouth's races and for other tracks to reach separate agreements with BetMakers to offer fixed odds betting on their races. BetMakers CEO Todd Buckingham predicted that fixed-odds wagering will...

Three versions of proposed federal legislation known as the Horseracing Integrity Act have been introduced in the United States Congress over the past five years, and only twice has the bill advanced as far as the subcommittee hearing level, like it did last Tuesday. Whether you're for or against HB 1754, which would mandate an independent anti-doping and medication control program in our sport, if you're called as a witness, it's crucial to tailor your arguments as concisely as possible. That's because legislators hearing testimony in the Subcommittee on Consumer...

Witnesses from the Thoroughbred industry who testified Tuesday in Washington, D.C., at a legislative hearing on the Horseracing Integrity Act agreed that the sport is facing an unprecedented equine health crisis. But they were sharply split as to whether the current version of a federal bill mandating an independent anti-doping and medication control program was the best way to keep the industry from slipping into deeper peril. The most cogent argument repeatedly put forth by pro-legislation speakers was that racehorses, unlike human athletes, don't have a say in being administered...