Amid the record setting sportsbooks, it’s sometimes easy to forget that The Meadowlands and Monmouth Park host horse races. In fact, without the racing, the two tracks could not offer sports betting.
The New Jersey Racing Commission has approved the 2020 meets at the state’s race tracks. The approval of the dates represents a five-day reduction in live racing at the thoroughbred-only Monmouth but a 12-day expansion of thoroughbred race dates at The Meadowlands, a harness facility where thoroughbreds have run briefly over the past seven years on its turf course.
“While we see a decline in the number of race dates at Monmouth Park—from 61 race dates in 2019 to 56 in 2020—the overall number of thoroughbred race dates in New Jersey will increase from 69 in 2019 to 76 in 2020. The decrease at Monmouth Park is more than offset by the increase in the number of dates at Meadowlands, from seven in 2019 to 19 in 2020. Races at Monmouth Park have been shifted to the Meadowlands because the track at Meadowlands is being converted to dirt,” said Leland Moore, a spokesman for the racing commission.
The Meadowlands will feature 90 harness dates in 2020, along with the 19 thoroughbred race days. Freehold also runs harness races.
Dennis Drazin, the head of Monmouth’s operating company, said that plans so far call for the cards at The Meadowlands to include dirt races as well. The dates approved for the track go from October 2 to December 5, with racing scheduled for two nights a week, he said in the Daily Racing Form.
Drazin and The Meadowlands owner, Jeff Gural, have agreed to share the costs of converting the harness surface for a thoroughbred track and reconverting it back for harness races.
The expansion of racing at The Meadowlands will give New Jersey thoroughbred racing greater visibility, considering cards will be held at night, Drazin said. The Meadowlands is also close to New York City, and the track has become the number one destination in New Jersey for sports betting.
The Monmouth Park meet will be run along its traditional dates, opening on May 2, and closing in late September. Racing will be initially conducted on a two-day per week schedule, expanded to three days a week in the summer, and then pared back to a two-day week in September, Drazin said.
The state provides a $20 million a year subsidy for track purses, divided equally between the thoroughbred industry and the standardbred, or harness, industry. Of the funds allocated for thoroughbreds, 100 percent goes to Monmouth Park. For standardbred, 60 percent goes to The Meadowlands, 16 percent to Freehold, 12 percent to the New Jersey Sire Stakes, six percent to purse bonuses for New Jersey sired horses, and six percent for breeders’ awards purses.
