COULD NEW MONMOUTH STRUCTURE BE MORE BAD NEWS FOR NYRA?
As Michael Veitch of The Saratogian says, Monmouth’s new purse structure implemented by Governor Chris Christie may prove to be the biggest challenge to New York racing in a long time. The push to reduce race days but increase average daily purses to $1 million will force NYRA to compete with the New Jersey track for top horses in the region.
Veitch continues to make the argument that despite Saratoga’s prestige and relatively high purse money ($730,000), many horsemen will be drawn to the $100,000 overnight stakes and the $75,000-$80,000 maiden special weights for 2-year-olds.
Is this a legitimate concern? Will Saratoga become less competitive due to the innovation of their neighbor to the South?
Then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think
Tags: bradford cummings, maiden special weight, Michael Veitch, monmouth park, nyra, overnight stakes, Paulick Report, saratoga, The Saratogian
March 10th, 2010 at 10:16 am
How does a guy (Gov. Christie) in office only a short while get it so quickly? Our sport has needed a contraction for the longest time, while entrenched powers-that-be continue to water down the product through misguided greed and stubborness. Boutique style racing is what the industry needs. Truth be told, Saratoga also needs to shorten it’s meet. Tampa Bay Downs continues to do well because it has a boutique feel to it, large fields, and a great grass course. Places like NYRA should shut down for the winter or a portion thereof, if only to invigorate interest. Give me more Keeneland style meets.
March 10th, 2010 at 11:42 am
What is going to happen when handle only goes up 25 %? U triple purses and how are u going to pay for it? The 25 % prediction is based off of the average field size going up significantly (1.5 horse to 2 horses) a race. Six horse fields with good allowance races will not make handle go up 25 %.
Also, this will hurt New York because horses will be taken away from that circuit. Now, the big question is how many horses?
This will help the super trainers like Steve A, Pletcher, and Lake and hurt the smaller outfits who will get squeezed.
Interesting goings on along The Jersey Shore.
March 10th, 2010 at 11:44 am
NYRA needs to react positively, not by circling the wagons and, as they’re doing, threatening trainers who ship to Monmouth with loss of their stalls at NYRA tracks. The Saratoga meet, at seven weeks, is absolutely too long. In general, the 250-days-a-year racing calendar at NYRA is far too long, although shortening it will work a hardship on those owners and trainers who slog through the six months of winter at Aqueduct. The rest of the industry needs to shrink as well. It’d be better to support half the people in racing, at a decent wage and salary, than for all of us to continue teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
How to get there is, of course, not an easy question to answer. New Jersey deserves a lot of credit for trying something new.
March 10th, 2010 at 11:59 am
NYRA needs to contact federal authorities with information leading to an investigation as to why the VLT project, long ago legalized by statute has been stalled. It is quite evident that corruption is the root cause of the inaction and pressure need to expose these individual(s). I bet that an FBI investigation would move the project forward in 30 days and expose the culprits. Whether it is the certification of the new Indian tribe or political patronage there is a concerted effort to stop the VLT project that needs exposing. jgs
March 10th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
While everyone is lauding the move by the state of new jersey,which only benefits the “carpetbaggers”with the big stables who will come from everywhere else to take the majority of the stalls and money someone should investigate John Forbes and see if he got anything for selling out the horsemen that he is supposed to represent
March 10th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
mike c #1 wrote:
Truth be told, Saratoga also needs to shorten it’s meet.
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They sure do. After last summer’s meet they extended it by 4 more days.
For what? so they can card more restricted claiming / NY bred races?
There used to be a time when four weeks of racing was really top notch.
Saratoga has noticeably dropped off in quality but they’ve had no challenges.
They now have met their match - at least for the time being.
March 10th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Aqueduct needs to be shut down as there’s no demand for winter racing. Use the simulcast revenue to enhance purses at Belmont & Saratoga as racing needs less quantity & more quality. The down turn in the TB market has taken thousands of mares out of production. As a result, there isnt going to be enough TBs to fill the starting gates under today’s racing structure.
Additionally, If Saratoga doesn’t invest some money in the facility they won’t have to worry about Monmouth. NYRA needs to enter the 21st Century and invest in some flat screen monitors!
March 11th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Monmouth’s decision is great for racing — it will only help the sport and other tracks — the naysayers are the ones that are killing racing.
Bravo Bravo Bravo Monmouth …
A little competition in this monopoly is great …
March 11th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Mike C - excellent point - compare the number of races annually with the number of football games, number of golf tournaments, etc. It’s no longer something special. And 40,000 Thoroughbred foals born per year? Who are we kidding? Contraction - good word.
March 12th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
very good, thankss