Horse Racing Fantasy Community

50 Million Dollars in 50 days and a lot of questions

New Jersey must be taking heed of whats going on at Horse Racing Fantasy and getting involved in the bonanza of big purses. It was announced today that NJ has taken drastic measures to stay viable. They cut the racing season from a 141 days in half to just 70. But with that, NJ's summer meet will have daily purses averaging 1 million dollars a day. WOW, that's a lot of money and close to $250,000 a day more then the previous high total produced by Saratoga. (Maiden Special Weight races $80,000, non winners of 1 $85,000 and ungraded stakes $120,000). The move has one fundamental purpose,, save racing in NJ. Big purses equal more horses running in each race and more bettors betting with bigger payouts. But will this simple equation hold up in such a depressed economy?

No one knows but NJ is banking its life on it...in order for the model to work, they must bridge a 7 million $$$ shortfall in purses to available money...average daily handle has to double. That means bettors who were spending money at great tracks like Del Mar and Saratoga will have to shift their focus to Monmouth Park.. With the increased competition, how will the other jurisdictions react? Will NY sit by and let NJ steal their business???? Or will they figure away out to come up with more money which does not seem to be there? I don't know the answer but seems logical and if they do will NJ be so special anymore?

Another question is where will NJ get the horse from? Will they be able to fill out a daily 12 race card with super horses from all over the globe? I am not sure they can....while many trainers will ship horses to go after the money, many other just plain wont. Many trainer make commitments to stable horses at specific tracks for years if not decades, will they change all this history for just 50 amazing days of gold?. If a local trainer tells NY that this year he will stable at Belmont but ship his good horse to NJ, do you think NY is going to say "sure no problem?" I don't.

I fear that desperate times call for desperate measures and anything goes in this case. Is this all a one year fix, what happens next year? . The casinos which have given millions to enhance NJ purses (so the tracks don't pursue VLT's), runs out at the end of the year... and those same casinos said their is no more money. This means purses next years will fall to below 300k per day with only half as many racing days. Which would kill local racing. Everyone would flee to PA, DE and NY.

So why do this drastic change in NJ? Not sure but to me this seems like the crescendo to 100 years of amazing racing. Maybe I am being negative and it all will work out but this will sure be an exciting year. (Glad I will have 5 Jersey bred horse running this year at Monmouth-the plan guarantees 2.5 races a day for just NJ bred horses)