TALE OF TWO TRACKS: MONMOUTH BUSINESS SOARS OPENING WEEKEND, HOLLYWOOD CANCELS WEDNESDAY CARD DUE TO LACK OF ENTRIES
Monmouth Park’s experimental 2010 race meeting of shorter weeks, bigger fields and higher purses got off to a rousing start this weekend, with substantial increases in on-track attendance and overall handle for both the Saturday and Sunday programs. After a record-breaking opening day on Saturday, pari-mutuel wagering on Sunday jumped 126% from 2009 levels. The meeting begins with two days of racing a week and then adds Fridays for three-day a week racing for a 50-day meeting that will offer $50 million in purses.
Meanwhile, on the West Coast, Hollywood Park canceled its Wednesday program, the first of a scheduled six-day week culminating with Memorial Day, due to a short of entries. It’s not that there aren’t enough horses, just not enough owners to pay the bills during challenging economic days and an extremely volatile time for California’s racing industry. If California experiences any more weeks like the last two they’ve endured–when Santa Anita’s new owner, MI Developments, voided its lease with the non-profit Oak Tree Racing Association (and probably ending all hope of landing the Breeders’ Cup in 2011 or being named permanent host site) and Santa Anita’s popular and respected track president Ron Charles resigned–there’s not much incentive for new owners to get in the game.
Monmouth Park’s shorter, bigger and better meeting is being called a game changer by some folks in the business. What will it take for California racing to have a game changer?
Read about
Monmouth Park’s opening weekend
…. and ….
Hollywood Park’s cancellation of Wednesday’s card
Then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think.
Tags: Hollywood Park, mi developments, monmouth park, Paulick Report, ron charles
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Ray, I don’t get the part where you say “its not that there aren’t enough horses”. There really aren’t enough horses and there is nothing in the near future to get them here. With breeding down significantly over the last few years where are they going to come from?
California is just about done for and some Politicians, some Racing Executives, and some Racing Officials are to blame. It’s not like nobody saw this coming. It seems that its more important for these guys to one-up one another than work together. Unfortunately a lot of good people who work in the industry in California are the ones that get hurt the most.
May 23rd, 2010 at 10:48 pm
What it will take for California to have a game changer? Go back to the days of only one track in the state racing at a time — Santa Anita in the winter, Hollywood Park in the spring, Del Mar in the summer, and Golden Gate in the fall.
The only overlaps would be with the summer fair circuit.
May 23rd, 2010 at 11:14 pm
Yesterday at Monmouth Park was a wonderful experience (even after getting clocked at the windows); the energy surge was amazing.
New Jersey racing setting an example for CA, NY, and KY on how to get it right: Imagine that.
Kudos to Gov. Christie and his staff for their essential support.
Our former governor – do you have any idea how hard it is to blow the unlimited advantages of political incumbency in New Jersey?! - was waiting for the Hudson River ferry, on the Manhattan side, about three months ago.
He looked like a survivor of a chem. lab explosion, which is basically what NJ racing looked like until Christie made it possible for the events of May 22, 2010 to produce headlines about horse racing that haven’t been seen since the 1950s.
The critical moment was years ago, and no one at the time, as is so often the case, knew it. Monmouth was reeling – the annual no-slots bribe from the casinos wasn’t a reality then – and the only Savior in sight was the lionized (without merit, yet incessantly) Frank Stronach.
(I was also there on the day in 2003 when he wandered into Suffolk Downs. An identically desperate racing management had identical designs on his wallet & it was amazing that they weren’t lined up outside the front door to carry the train of Toronto’s Louis XIV½ as he alit from his carriage.)
If he would only buy Monmouth Park, the Promised Land would be ours.
Well, he kicked the Park’s tires. Fortunately, they were as lifeless as his own future corporate finances would be in 2010.
So, instead, he signed the Deeds of The Kiss of Death with Pimlico, et al.
The day that we “lost” our Guardian Angel was truly the day – even though we did everything in our power to get hit by it – that we dodged the bullet.
Amen.
May 24th, 2010 at 12:16 am
While it is true that a third day of racing will be added on Fridays at Monmouth Park, that will not be the case this week. The Memorial Day holiday (Monday) will be the “third day” next week.
Then the following week will feature the first Friday afternoon racing card of the meet. By then we should have good enough numbers to see how this experiment will shape the future of American thoroughbred racing.
I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate the Monmouth Park employees for a job well done (so far). We’ve yet to see the first Graded Stakes race of the meet, the first sunny day, the kids are still at school and the swimsuits still have cobwebs on them.
The future looks bright at the Jersey Shore.
May 24th, 2010 at 12:30 am
Hollywood needs to start keeping the cheaper horses in the state to fill their cards. Full fields of 5000 claimers racing for 20K would help handle and support the 5 horse Alw fields racing for 50K that nobody wants to bet on.
May 24th, 2010 at 12:45 am
“What will it take for California racing to have a game changer?”
What I great question, if I had the answer I would be a millionaire. It’s just too damn depressing to think about.
May 24th, 2010 at 4:45 am
Here is the most confusing part of the puzzle:(totals rounded and approximate)
Saturday results-
Monmouth (opening day)-13 races/126 horses (9.69 field ave)- handle-$9.35 million
Hollywood- 9 races/ 67 horses (7.44 field ave)- handle- $9.5 million
Sunday results-
Monmouth -11 races/105 horses (9.55 field ave)- handle-$7.00 million
Hollywood- 10 races/ 64 horses (6.40 field ave)- handle- $8.7 million
So a huge (@3-1 or higher, excluding stakes) purse difference in Monmouth’s favor, more races in Monmouths favor, Opening weekend in Monmouth’s favor, and 2-3 more horses per race in Monmouth’s favor, dirt vs. synthetic, and still, Hollywood Park outhandles Monmouth.
I just don’t get it.
May 24th, 2010 at 8:32 am
California had the world by the ass on a downhill pull for years and it was properly run for years. However, the fruits of expertise, understanding and dedication have been eroded over the past 10-15 years miserably! A pioneer in permissive medication where 2 y.o.’s were exposed to bute and lasix under the name of good horsemanship; the entrance of TOC, Magna, Indian gambling, killer
insurance programs, pro growth taxation and the failure of a comprehensive breeding program have taken their toll almost to the point of no return. Leaders like Strub and Kilroe have never been replicated; cheap claiming horses have taken the place of high priced and well bred babies. However, there is NO shortage of thoroughbred race horses in this nation. That is a fallacy! There is however, a silent exodus of good racing stock to eastern and mid western locations. The country is operating on one of the top six record foal crops (37,500) in history. Horse racing lacks expertise and horse sense, not horses! The “Magna theory” has not worked anywhere it has been implemented. The synthetic track myths are turning out to be real as horsemen are running away from them if they can and suffering in silence if they can’t! California’s natural beauty and attractions cannot overcome the afflictions of stupidity and incompetence! Monmouth has a bright idea, a one time purse account and a boutique meeting. Horse racing is healthy, alive and well if we will let it be!
May 24th, 2010 at 8:44 am
You raise a good point, Ace, (and someone else pointed out that is was very unlikely that Monmouth turned a profit over the weekend’s business) but one could argue the handle on Belmont’s and Hollywood’s short, lackluster fields over the weekend was mostly force of habit. Getting consumers to change is sometimes like trying to turn an aircraft carrier, but Monmouth’s opening weekend has them starting to turn. We won’t really know if this is going to work until August or so, when the true test will come and we’ll see if Monmouth can maintain momentum against Saratoga and Del Mar.
Until then we should enjoy the show and applaud the effort. The buzz wasn’t just at the Jersey Shore — in my urban simulcast location many more TVs were tuned to the Monmouth signal, the regulars were abandoning Belmont past performances in favor or Monmouth’s and the chatter was all about Monmouth.
May 24th, 2010 at 9:22 am
ACE- It’s partly about market share. Hollywood gets all of California’s wagering OTB market, and I’m sure a few more places nationally that Monmouth does not get their signal to.
The CA OTB market, while not a model of operational excellence or market penetration, is familar with Hollywood and it’s riders, trainers, etc., and they have a limited menu of TB racing options.. Monmouth got only about half its card into CA; races 6-13 on Saturday, and 4-11 on Sunday. And, the new Monmouth is still a new “concept”. If they keep it up, it will get some more attention (read market share) in CA, but it’s still a simulcast product in competition with tried and true staple of CA racing. The fact that Monmouth did as well as they did with what I bet is less national “shelf space” than Hollywood is very promising for them.
I believe in fewer high quality races, more like Jersey, less like CA, and most other racing states. The issue to me is how to balance the needs of the horsemen, who need high numbers of racing opportunites to keep a stable in the black, and the appetite of players, who have a limit on how much racing product they can consume. Major league, minor league? Triple AAA, double AA? We need to classify races and tracks and standardize the purse structure over a broader area. Almost impossible to do, but i think necessary to make the thing work.
IMHO.
May 24th, 2010 at 9:25 am
I can’t believe that anyone would continue betting California racing out of habit. The only logical proposition I can think of is that whales have skewed the handle so dramatically that handle comparisons are no longer fair.
May 24th, 2010 at 9:43 am
ace & Brit—Monmouth’s numbers increased significantly but is it enough to support a million dollar a day purse structure? I saw a view of the Monmouth grandstand on TVG on Sunday and crowd didn’t appear to that big. As far as California is concerned, they are in the same predicament as Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and New York. The do-nothing politicos those states could help racing and in turn solve some of the financial problems each state is experiencing, but I suspect they are holding out until their palms are sufficiently greased.
As a whole racing’s future appears to be pretty bleak because politicos lack the movitation and the leadership skills needed to turn things around.
May 24th, 2010 at 10:09 am
It’s not habit. it’s exposure. familiarity, timing and a host of other variables.. I don’t have access to handle figs but I suspect that on a race by race basis, CA bettors still bet more on Hollywood than Monmouth unless there were significant differences in field or wager type.
May 24th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Horse racing’s problems didn’t develop over a weekend. I don’t expect them to go away after a weekend at Monmouth either.
May 24th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
@ #7 ace: Monmouth can draw more of what horse racing needs — bigger crowd of on-track bettors who bet less money, smaller bettors who someday can become larger bettors. Parking and concession dollars count for something, too. Hollywood (SoCal) is the only Thoroughbred track within a 7-hour drive of it way out there out West, beginning at a later start time. Monmouth competes w/Delaware, Belmont for live attendance and many other Eastern daytime tracks for simulcast dollars.
May 24th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
What’s going on at Hollywood Park is ridiculous, but all a racing fan needs to do is look across the Hudson River at Belmont Park to see “the worst of times.” New York’s situation is ridiculous, and the Monmouth meet is going to crush Belmont if something drastic is not done soon. NYRA should get the $25 million loan to keep operating through the rest of 2010 on the caveat that it eliminates its Wednesday and Thursday programs at Belmont and Aqueduct (Saratoga won’t lose any dates since it does well enough to survive). The purse money for each lost Wednesday and Thursday would then be redistributed to the Friday, Saturday and Sunday cards to make them competitive with Monmouth. It won’t be $1 million a day in the spring and summer, but it will be close enough to keep horses at Belmont.
May 25th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
Hopefully Monmouth’ superior purses are supported by superior equine welfare protection and integrity to offer superior racing and entertainment.