Monmouth Park CEO Dennis Drazin speaking at the annual media luncheon on May 7, 2019

1. Monmouth Park is back! – At the Monmouth Park opening press conference, Dennis Drazin stated “Monmouth Park is here forever”.  Well “forever” is a long time, but things are certainly looking up at the New Jersey racetrack.  Purses are up (approx $500K/day), days are up (61 this year), and there is a renewed focus on Jersey Breds with 11 stakes scheduled for them.  Also, Maximum Security is stabled at Monmouth and is scheduled to run in the Haskell.  The stables already have more horses than last year so the races should be much more competitive.  William Hill will be honoring their contractual obligation to build an additional venue on site (adding to what is already there) with construction expected to begin after this year’s racing season ends.  All in all, very promising.  It was a long fight to get sports betting and you can see former New Jersey Senator Ray Lesniak read about the fight from his book “Beating The Odds” here.

Former New Jersey senator Ray Lesniak speaking at the annual media luncheon at Monmouth Park on May 7, 2019

2. Thoroughbred Industry has a lot of work to do – From the issues at Santa Anita to the controversy over the Kentucky Derby (more on that later).  Horse safety and health has to be foremost in everyone’s mind and my experience is that is the case with most horsemen.  Are there bad actors in horse racing?  Of course, just as there are bad accountants, bad lawyers and bad everything else.  But the vast majority of people involved in horse racing do so because they love the majestic animals they work with and would never do anything to harm them or put them in peril.  Problem is, the industry can’t seem to get together on one set of rules, be it licensing, racing rules, medication or anything else.  They also are incredibly poor at communicating the positive side of horse racing and all the good that is done.  Will the recent issues wake everyone up to collectively fix the inconsistencies?  I hope so, but I am not optimistic.

3. The Kentucky Derby Decision – Any knowledgeable follower of racing would recognize that the decision by the stewards at the Kentucky Derby was the correct one by the rules.  Also, the press coverage of the race is another example of the poor job the industry does in explaining.  I can’t take hearing one more time that Maximum Security was named winner of the race.  No……no horse is named “winner” of the race until the race is declared official by the stewards, but somehow the “regular” press is not corrected when they report it this way, giving the impression that the stewards “did something untoward”.  Bill Finley summarizes the situation very well in his TDN article “The Stewards were right but the system is wrong”.  So to all those complaining about the decision………that’s why they call it gambling!  If you can’t take the losses, don’t bet.  The stewards followed the rules, if you don’t like the rule, lobby to get it changed.

So that’s my opening rant for the start of the Monmouth Park season.  Good luck to everyone this year and have fun!