Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Beyond Provincialism, Audacious Monmouth Plan a Blueprint for Saving an Industry?

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY, March 9, 2009--If New York racing knows what’s good for it, and if the racing industry in general wants to grow instead of subsisting, withering and, eventually, disappearing, it had better wish Monmouth Park and New Jersey racing all the luck in the world.

Virtually since the day after hosting the Breeders’ Cup, Monmouth Park and its horsemen began thinking about a new model that would ensure its existence going forward. Like every other racetrack in this country, big and small, it’s in survival mode.

But that’s what happens when you fall out of favor, are no longer a part of the fabric, and betting revenue drops nearly 25 percent in the last two years. To be provincial about Monmouth’s grand experiment this summer would miss the point at best, myopic at worst.

This is bigger than whether Monmouth can effectively compete in a racing environment in which it finds itself surrounded on all sides by slots-infused competition. It is bigger than seeing how negatively Monmouth Park’s incursion into the high end of the “good horse circuit” negatively impacts Saratoga Race Course this summer.

And so all with a vested interest in this industry needs to root for New Jersey to succeed in 2010. If it doesn’t, there won’t be a 2011 in the Garden State. If it doesn’t, then the rest of racing has no future, either. Monmouth Park has created a new paradigm, a model that finally--finally--addresses the state of the modern game.

As Monmouth Park vice president and general manager, Bob Kulina, and trainer John Forbes, president of the New Jersey Horsemen’s Association, expressed so clearly on an NTRA conference call Tuesday afternoon, the public has spoken: “Racing has got to change.”

“We’ve gone from a local sport to a national sport with simulcasting,” explained Forbes. “Fans want larger fields and better horses. We decided to concentrate on the big picture rather than worry about the provincial aspect, focus on what the customer wants.

“After the 2007 Breeders’ Cup, we knew we needed a future to survive,” Kulina added. “Our customers want a better product and we’re going to give the players what they want. We’re in the entertainment business. We had to try to provide [a picture] of what racing in this country should look like.”

To accomplish the goal, Monmouth Park, with the help of its horsemen, have come up with an audacious model, a 49-day summer meet that will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sundays only, including three additional holiday Mondays.

A Monmouth racing weekend basically will package 12-race programs with an average daily purse distribution of $1-million, or about $250,000 more than Saratoga-based horsemen raced for last year.

Special-weight maidens at Monmouth Park this year will race for a purse of $75,000; a three-other-than allowances will go for $90,000; an overnight stakes, $100,000. There will be an average 2.5 Jersey-bred races per program. Their state-bred maidens will race for a $75,000 pot. Any Jersey-bred that finishes 1-2-3 in an open race earns a 20 percent bonus from the New Jersey breeding fund.

In the modern era, thoroughbred racing in New Jersey has embraced innovation. Because of its proximity to New York, it had to. The graphics packages on the nightly “Racing From the Meadowlands” cable program were always a step ahead of the competition. I was there. I know.

The bundling of thoroughbred stakes on a single card also broke new ground. It led to the special-event days that are so prevalent nationally today. They were the first track I know of to refer to their customers as “guests,” and treated them accordingly. They served gourmet fare in their tony Equestris restaurant, also a racetrack first.

Now thoroughbred racing at the Meadowlands will be no more, shifting to Monmouth Park for 22 days after Labor Day. They will race Saturdays and Sunday only, for purses reverting to a more New Jersey-like $250,000 daily. Standardbred racing will fill the gap in the Meadowlands schedule by adding three-day-weekend harness programs.

For Monmouth Park and the New Jersey thoroughbred industry, this enormous gamble could be a last hurrah. Kulina and attorney Dennis Drazin, a horse owner and former president of the NJHA, knew they had to come up with a product that the public wanted, one that bettors would embrace. They’re betting that quality racing will do that.

“This is a one-year plan,” Kulina said. “With proper funding to attract better horses and with the proper number of [racing] days, we could then go out and secure more funding. But we need to prove that it will work. We made some soft projections and are taking a gamble we can double our handle.”

Obviously, if you put up that kind of purse money, they will come, from all over the Mid-Atlantic and New York, especially New York. Kulina mentioned that in recent years Todd Pletcher, Kiaran McLaughlin and Bruce Levine have had sizable divisions at Monmouth Park.

Linda Rice, Saratoga’s leading trainer in 2009, also has enjoyed successful Monmouth meets in the past. It’s easy to understand why local horsemen, and the NYRA, are anxious.

“Of course, we’re very concerned about smaller horsemen, but our sense is that we have to look toward the future,” said Kulina. “We’re in the middle of five states with slots revenues. Small horsemen don’t have the kind of horses that America wants to bet on. [If they can’t compete] they will have to go by the wayside.”

Before anyone thinks that’s cruel and unusual, the alternative is worse. “When Dennis and I had to come up with a plan, we thought about the glory days of the 50s, 60s and 70s and how racing was back then, a series of 30-day and 40-day race meets. Horsemen were moving all the time.

“Obviously you can’t do that today. But if you reduce the number of opportunities for live racing you can put out a better product, and that helps everyone. We learned at the Meadowlands that when fans showed up at for daytime simulcasting from Saratoga and Keeneland, it hurt our live racing at night… And simulcasting at the Meadowlands was very successful.”

What Monmouth management and its horsemen have created is a formula for success but the consumer, in Kulina’s words, “needs to embrace this.” And so this is much bigger than a provincial issue between New Jersey and New York, between Monmouth Park and Saratoga Race Course.

One proven way to boost handle and generate interest in Monmouth’s past performances would be if, during this experimental period, the track received permission from the state to lower parimutuel takeout, at least in a few featured betting pools. Lowering the rake is also what the customer wants.

And what will it all mean when Saratoga opens its extended 40-day race meet, July 21? “We think that Saratoga is still the best summer meeting on the East Coast,” said Monmouth Park’s general manager. “I know there’s a place for both of us to survive.”

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