“June began with a bang with Jerseyfest 2013,” said General Manager/C.E.O. Jason Settlemoir. “The momentum never stopped. With events like Camel and Ostrich Racing and Beerfest, The Meadowlands enjoyed great on-track success this month. Event marketing is something we put a great deal of effort and financing into and to see it be this successful is extremely gratifying and encouraging as we get closer and closer to opening our new facility.”
June is historically a very difficult month for The Meadowlands due to the abundance of major stakes races at other racetracks, including North America Cup Night at Mohawk Racetrack and The Sun Stakes at Pocono Downs. But 2013 bucked a trend.
The strength in export figures has been well-pronounced all year, but the increases in June were staggering. “We saw our export handle really struggle at this time last year,” said Director of Racing Operations Darin Zoccali. “But thanks to many factors, including the simulcast relationship we have developed with California, we have seen the export numbers actually grow in the month of June.” We have seen larger increases in our export handle in June than we did in January, February and March, which are our best months. That is almost hard to believe.” By the end of the month, the export handle showed an increase of 29-percent from 2012, while racing two less days. If those two extra days were removed, the export handle would reflect a 55-percent increase.
Chairman Jeff Gural is quite pleased with the progress. “We really struggled this month in 2012 in both handle and entries. But in 2013, the horsemen have really supported The Meadowlands with a large number of entries and we are very thankful to them for that. As The Meadowlands has shown throughout 2013, full fields drives handle. Despite our regular drivers being elsewhere for much of the month, our race office led by Peter Koch was able to put together programs with full fields and competitive racing. Those factors were the largest contribution to our strong results. We have responded over the past two months with purse increases for non-winners of 1, 2 or 3 race events for all sex and gaits as well as all the B1 and B2 events. With the best horses in training making The Meadowlands home for the rest of our Championship Meet, July and August will most certainly be two months to remember.”
