Monmouth Park

Led by the July 20 running of the $1 million GI Haskell S., Monmouth Park is set to offer $8.05 million in stakes races when the track kicks off its 79th season on Saturday, May 11, the venue said in a release Thursday afternoon. This year's race meet, which runs through Sept. 15, will feature 48 total stakes, including 10 graded events, and 11 stakes restricted to New Jersey-bred horses. Along with the featured race, the Haskell Day program will once again sport an undercard with four graded stakes races,...

A bill that would have extended annual purse subsidy payments made to New Jersey's Thoroughbred and Standardbred tracks was vetoed Wednesday by Gov. Phil Murphy. The bill called for the $20 million subsidy, which is split between the two breeds, to continue through 2029. The money has already been approved for 2024. The extension was to run from 2025 through 2029. Murphy vetoed 12 bills in all, using what is called a pocket veto. That type of veto applies only to bills sent to the governor's desk in the final...

The year 2023 was a pretty rough one for the sport of horse racing, and there was little to suggest that this year would be any different. The sport seems to be caught in a downward spiral as we move from one crisis to another and are left to wonder "what next?" So far this year, the answer to that question is that maybe things will be better in 2024 than we might have thought. There have been several recent positive developments for the sport, many of them having to...

Assembly Bill 5893, which called for an extension of annual purse subsidies given to New Jersey's Thoroughbred and Standardbred Industries through 2029, was passed Monday by the New Jersey Senate by a 35-1 margin. The bill had earlier been passed by the Assembly, by a margin of 73-0, and will now head to the desk of Governor Phil Murphy, who is expected to sign the legislation into law. The bill calls for a $20 million subsidy to be split evenly among the two breeds. The money is seen as a...

The New Jersey-based lawsuit in which a group of bettors are alleging they were cheated out of their property by Bob Baffert when his betamethasone-positive trainee, Medina Spirit, crossed the finish wire first in the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby and purportedly prevented the plaintiffs from cashing winning tickets on the runner-up is on the cusp of being transferred back to a federal court in California where it was first initiated 2 1/2 years ago. In a Dec. 22 filing in United States District Court (District of New Jersey), the judge...

Natalia Lynch, a Belmont Park-based trainer who has been licensed since 2020, has been penalized with a four-year suspension and a $50,000 fine after a Nov. 9 Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) arbitration judgment found her to be in violation of two separate anti-doping rules, one for the presence of a banned substance (Altrenogest) in a horse, and another for possession of a different prohibited drug (Thyro-L). Lynch's attorney, John Mac Hayes, told TDN Monday that the trainer plans to appeal the arbitration result to a Federal Trade Commission...

Standing in the first stall on the left in the Clark family's cozy barn at their farm in Springfield, Ky., ears pricked and head on a constant swivel in search of the next treat, Golovkin appears right at home. One would never guess that the 5-year-old gelded son of Mshawish had just shipped from Monmouth Park, nor that he was the center of Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) findings against his racing owner/trainer John Pimental. The story was first shared by the TDN's T. D. Thornton on Oct. 20,...

The ruled-off trainer John Pimental said Wednesday that he and his wife, Diana, have been "blown away" by the support and offers of assistance they have received in the five days since a TDN story highlighted the life-altering ramifications of John's signing an "admission of rule violations" and "acceptance of consequences" document to settle Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) allegations stemming from a methamphetamine positive in one of his Monmouth Park trainees. While being served notice on July 28 of the meth positive, HIWU agents conducted a Monmouth barn...

Trainer John Pimental was mired in a 1-for-46 streak on the morning of July 28, 2023. But the 68-year-old horseman knew he didn't have life as bad as those numbers suggested. He was taking care of eight Thoroughbreds for a good, longtime client. He enjoyed escorting runners to the Monmouth Park starting gate with his 17-year-old pony, hustling as much business as he could on race days when his own horses weren't in, the way he had always earned a living as a second-generation racetracker who grew up on a...

Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup with Living Legends There are great racehorses and there are great sires. One doesn't always equal the other. Sometimes, but not always, a horse is equally adept at both. "It's rare for world-class racehorse to become a world-class sire. It's two different resumes, two different achievements," said John Sikura, owner of Hill 'n' Dale. Rarely, ever so rarely, a top racehorse becomes a sire so good and so prolific in generating top-class horses that his own championship race record becomes almost an afterthought....

Wanamaker's, in partnership with the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association of New Jersey, will be holding its first-ever New Jersey-Bred Sale on Thursday, Nov. 16. "We are excited to partner with Wanamaker's on a New Jersey-bred mixed sale," said Michael Campbell, executive director of Thoroughbred Breeders' Association of New Jersey. "The New Jersey-bred program is gaining attention from breeders and owners across the country.  The partnership with Wanamaker's is a great benefit to New Jersey breeders who can sell their horses without the stress and financial commitment of bringing them to the sales grounds. With...

Monmouth Park continued an upward trend by showing an increase in average total handle and average on-track handle for the third straight year as the 51-day meet came to a close Sunday. Paco Lopez claimed his 10th riding title and Claudio Gonzalez was the leading trainer for the second straight summer. The average total handle was $4,032,648 this year, an 11.4 percent increase over last year's average of $3,620,719. The on-track handle rose 15 percent to $340,257 compared to the 2022 average of $295,896. In addition, the average field size...