Monmouth Park closes out another successful summer

OCEANPORT — Spurred by the largest single-day mutuel handle in the track’s history, Monmouth Park showed across-the-board gains in betting and attendance for the 87-day, 2004 meeting that came to a close here Sunday.

The Haskell Day throng of 45,365 on Aug. 8 — third largest in track history — helped raise total attendance for the meet to 790,451.

Total betting that day of $12,686,430 — largest one-day handle in Monmouth history — helped push total wagering to $247,388,290.

The on-track handle that day was $3,802,494, second highest in track history.

Average daily attendance of 9,086 for the 87 days was 4.2 percent higher than in 2003, while the average daily total handle of $2,843,544 was 17.2 percent above the previous year.

On-track handle totaled $61,474,831 for a daily average of $706,607, an increase of 5.6 percent over the 2003 average.

“Quality racing sells,” said Bob Kulina, vice president of thoroughbred racing and general manager.

“With the increased purses, we were able to offer an improved racing product, and better racing leads directly to better business.”

Lion Heart, owned by Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith and trained by Patrick Biancone, powered his way to a gate-to-wire victory in the $1 million Haskell Invitational (G1) with My Snookie’s Boy second. A son of Monmouth winner Tale of the Cat, Lion Heart became a millionaire as the Haskell winner’s prize of $600,000 raised his career total of $1,380,800.

He was ridden that day by Joe Bravo, who won a record 10th title at Monmouth Park for most wins at the meet. Top apprentice jockey this year was Michael Baze, a member of the famous riding family. Tim Hills won his second Monmouth training title this season after finishing second last year. Hills took his first Monmouth crown in 2002. Michael Gill was the leading owner for the second year in a row.

The Meadowlands picks up thoroughbred action in New Jersey starting tonight with the $300,000 Pegasus Stakes (G3) the top event. The Meadowlands races days on Tuesdays with first post 1:10 p.m. and nights Wednesday through Saturday, with a 7:35 p.m. start.