Open Letter to all Owners and Trainers Racing in NY, NJ & PA
As you know, the first twenty-nine days of
the 2013 meet at the Meadowlands have been an overwhelming success. The public has adapted to the classification
system, along with the competitive style of racing full fields, etc. as our
handle is up approximately 33%. Last
year we only had two days excluding the Hambletonian and Meadowlands Pace where
the handle exceeded $3 Million dollars.
This year we already exceeded $3 Million dollars on thirteen occasions.
We are building a brand new grandstand as
anyone who has visited the track can see.
I assure you it will be a first class facility and a place that you will
be proud to come to with your family or other guests.
That is the good news.
The bad news is that because all of our
income is derived from wagering and horse racing we
need to continue to generate handles of over $3 Million dollars every Friday
and Saturday. In order to do that we
require full fields and since we are only racing two days beginning next week
essentially we need 250 horses each weekend to fill both cards. Last weekend we
had twenty-five fewer horses racing over the weekend and as a result our handle
declined by $508,000.
As we all know with Chester opening last week
and Pocono opening in another week, in order for those two tracks to fill their
cards they would probably need to have a minimum of an extra 1,000 horses
assuming both tracks race four days a week as scheduled and thirteen or
fourteen races per night which seems to be their plan.
Since both these tracks, as well as Yonkers,
derive the majority of their purse money from casino gambling they often have
purses equal or better than ours and most people think it is easier to win at
those tracks as long as you do not draw too many eight or nine holes. I understand all that but the Meadowlands
cannot survive without having full fields and competitive races. The last two
months have shown that the product is extremely popular with the people who
wager on standardbred racing. In fact,
on a typical Saturday night 40% of all the money bet at US tracks is wagered on
our product.
To be blunt, I need the industry to step up
and support the Meadowlands which may not be the best business decision for
everyone in the short term but, in my opinion, the industry needs a healthy
Meadowlands and we deserve the support of the industry.
The other option would be for us to
drastically reduce the stakes program which I think would help increase our
overnight purses but would have a very negative impact on the industry because
our stakes program is vital to support the breeding industry. It also serves to attract new customers by
showcasing our best horses and creating the kind of excitement we see for our
major races. This will be especially
true when we move into the new building. Currently we use 25% of our purse
money to fund the stakes program approximately $4,200,000 while our competitors
are typically using 10-12%.
To be honest, I am not sure there are enough
horses for all of the race days that are scheduled at Chester, Pocono, Yonkers,
Dover and the Meadowlands. It would seem
at some point it should be addressed as the number of mares bred and yearlings
born each year continues to decline significantly. Common sense would tell you that this has to
have an impact and that race days have to start to come down. The bottom line is we cannot survive without
full fields as we get killed when we have six or seven horse races no matter
what the quality is. We struggled to
fill the card with short fields the last two weekends and Pocono is not open
yet.
One possibility would be to work with Pocono
and Chester and try to come up with a schedule that would allow all of us to
have full fields and quality racing. One
suggestion was to lower the purses in December, January and February when there
is an oversupply of horses and increase the purses when the Pennsylvania tracks
reopen. Another option that we might
consider is a loyalty program whereby we create a formula that allows
preference to those horsemen who support us in the spring and summer when we
are racing the fall and winter meet.
I would rather see the industry support us on
a voluntary basis as I think it is in everyone’s best interest that we continue
to provide the type of product we have been providing for the last two and a
half months. Hopefully I can count on
your support.
Jeff Gural
