They must be having a sale on “Mary-Jane” in NJ….At the rate they’re going with the costs of running the plant and purses they will be out of money by August of this year….But take heart horsemen….Your favorites Kulina and Forbes aka “Bonnie and Clyde” will have already got theirs up front…..

 Its too bad that Trump and other major casino people don’t own racetracks, than NJ would be all set!

Haven’t had such a laugh – that headline, Monmouth Bids For BC! – since Seinfeld was in its prime.  Seriously, I like what they’re doing this year at Monmouth, but since New Jersey Account Wagering – a LEGAL monopoly which New Jersey residents are forced to bet with – has been acquired by a private concern, its service has gotten progressively worse.

Ther is absolutely no possibility whatever that they have the technical equipment and technicians that can handle the enormous handle that the BC attracts.

Remember how they crashed when the last MP BC was conducted?

Wasn’t it fun being notified four days later how your bets did? (If you won with bets made before the comuters crashed, you got the money, but you couldn’t bet with it, and what race at which track it came from was also an unresolved issue).

The Mets just threw a no-hitter in their 51st year of existence, in their 8,020th game since 1962. 

Our “miracle” allowance has been depleted.  The last chance of NJ handling a BC competently has just vanished.

An example, as we speak, of how NJAW’s technical services make one nostalgic for tech calls to India:

It’s the 12th race at the Meadows, and the audio has “feedback” (if you call a radio station and you get on the air to ask a guest a question, they immediately tell you to turn your radio off, otherwise the “cho chamber” effect starts.  Same thing here).

Do you like listening to Roger Huston calling a race?  Want to hear his exact same words again, two seconds later – while his “live” call is still in progress?

Move to N.J.!  This has been going on now for months!

A couple of weeks ago, the “real time” wagering board minutes-to-posts keep freezing.  Hit the refresh button, and discover that the race you were waiting to watch (“6 MTP”) – ended four minutes ago.

And: A section of the Wagering Page kept collapsing.  Sick of dealing with NJAW (no phone calls!  Type memos, send them, get theirs back etc., what would take three minutes to fix now takes ten!), I just ignored it and got into the habit of hitting the refresh button once every 90 seconds to restore the collapsed portion.

One day, it miraculously stopped collapsing.  I sent them a line congratulating them on having fixed the problem.

Not only did they not acknowledge that I had told them that the problem had vanished, which means that THEY must have done something to fix it –

They replied saying that “here’s how you fix it.”  And included a 25-second self-help video that was visually completely out of focus and featured zero sound.  Fortunately, I didn’t have to pay any attention to it, and the problem hasn’t resurfaced since that time.

And Jeff Gural wonders why he can’t get any owners to race at the Meadowlands.

The only way Monmouth has any chance of hosting another BC is if lights are installed at Monmouth (which had been talked about a few years ago but was rejected).  It’s the same reason to me Belmont won’t get the 2013 BC unless they would follow through and why unless another track is capable of racing at night AND giving BC Ltd. what they want, Churchill Downs will be the almost-permanent hosts of the BC beginning in 2013, especially if it means getting three hours of Saturday night prime time and very likely an additional hour of Friday prime time on NBC given how much the television landscape has changed just since NBC last had the BC in 2005.

Aside from there, there are still too many bad memories of the last BC Monmouth hosted in 2007, no thanks to a nor’easter that created two days of heavy rain at Monmouth Park.

Great post–this makes me smile. I’ll never understand the heavy reverb in the pa system at The Meadows. It is jarring, to say the least.  I cannot wait for that unit to break down, or maybe they could just donate it to surf guitar legend Dick Dale, who uses that effect on guitar and makes it sound good.

they better get busy with a complete FACE LIFT on that wore out PLANT…& N.Y. needs to follow suit…

I would be surprised if the BC came back to Monmouth. Awful weather aside from the last time, the BC just can’t make as much money in a plant the size of Monmouth as it can Santa Anita, Churchill or Belmont. If you compare total revenue at Monmouth’s BC vs. others you’ll see why it’s a longshot to land there again.