63rd season starts at Monmouth Park racetrack

Racing officials hope for big year despite looming industry crisis

BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer

OCEANPORT – And they’re off!

Monmouth Park’s 63rd season of live thoroughbred racing began on May 9. The meet will run for 99 days through Sept. 28, with purses averaging $330,000 per day. Highlights of the meet will include the $1 million Haskell Invitational Stakes on Aug. 3.

Leaders in the racing industry, trainers, jockeys and racehorse owners kicked off the season during a May 6 luncheon at the Oceanport racetrack.

Dennis Robinson, president and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA), started by saying that a visit to Monmouth Park is like stepping back into history when life operated at a more relaxed pace.

Robinson said last year’s Breeders’ Cup brought many improvements to Monmouth Park that the public will enjoy for years to come. He also mentioned that private investors are putting billions of dollars into the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford and that a rail line scheduled to open in the fall of 2010 would make that venue more easily accessible.

While an agreement with Atlantic City casinos to provide purse subsidies of $30 million per year for three years will keep New Jersey racing viable, Robinson said there is a need for transformation in the collective approach to horse racing.

“We need a partnership of the industry and government to develop a longterm solution,” Robinson said. “No one can expect to invest in an industry with three-year time frames.”

Robinson said that racing in New Jersey is at a crossroads, and there is a need to reach existing and potential customers in new ways. He noted that surrounding states such as Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware have video lottery terminals (VLT), or slots, at their racetracks, which attract a wider audience and drastically improve racing purses and the sport’s viability. Increased gaming from nearby states impacts not just racing but all forms of gaming in New Jersey, he said.

“Introduction of VLTs is one option, but one of many options that must be explored in the months ahead,” Robinson said. “The casinos’ purse subsidy agreement is contingent on the state racetracks not pursuing VLTs.”

Racing’s highest priority is to get additional off-track wagering sites up and running as soon as possible, Robinson said. However, he does not consider such sites to be racing’s “silver bullet.”

He said The Favorites parlor in Woodbridge and the one recently opened in Toms River have been doing very well. Wagering records were set at The Favorites and at Monmouth Park for the May 3 Kentucky Derby, he said.

Dennis Dowd, senior vice president for racing at the NJSEA, commented on the highs and lows of the recent Kentucky Derby. He said that winner Big Brown was the “real deal” but noted that the eyes of the nation and the world are on the industry because of the death of second-place finishing filly Eight Belles.

“We have to stress that tragedies don’t occur nearly as often as the last few years would lead [people] to believe,” he said. “It is sad to see horses that have to be euthanized. But more horses have fatal injuries in the field than on the racetrack.”

Dowd said that racehorses are well cared for and that the industry is getting heat for something he doesn’t think it deserves.

On a lighter note, he said that Monmouth Park’s racetrack is in perfect shape and has received nothing but praise from trainers and riders on the work that has been done to the track.

“We took all the work we did for the Breeders’ Cup and made it look better,” he said.

Joe Bravo, who has been the leading rider at Monmouth Park for 13 years, said, “There’s only two places I’d live in the summer – the Jersey Shore or the Hamptons,” adding that the Hamptons doesn’t have a racetrack.

When asked about the possibility of a 14th title, Bravo said it is not something he worries about.

“I just go out to win races, and everything else follows,” he said.

The Breeders’ Cup attention has also brought some top new stables to Monmouth Park, including Barclay Tagg, who trained 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide.

Trainer Jeanne Vuyosevich, who runs Sunset Meadow Farm in Farmingdale and has been racing at Monmouth Park since 1975, said she has four horses in training at the track this season.

Vuyosevich commented that people used to take more time with their horses.

“We didn’t break out 1 1/2-year-olds,” she said. “We didn’t break horses until they were 2 or 3 [years old].”

She also noted that grooms, who care for the horse and their legs, seemed to be better trained back then.

“Today, the trainer is on a cell phone,” she said. “They don’t have time to teach the groom.”

Breeders Gerald and Carolyn Sleeter, of Clementon, were honored at the luncheon with The Buddy Raines Distinguished Achievement Award. Presented annually, the award honors those who have brought integrity to the sport. Previous winners in attendance included Danny Perlsweig, Jimmy Kroll, Dennis Drazin, Sam Fieramosca and Richard Malouf.