No Shore Thing?

Will there be a Monmouth Park meet in 2012? Apparently the folks at the Jersey Shore racetrack think there will be, for today there appeared in my email in-box the announcement that the 2012 Monmouth Park season pass is now available for just $85.00, which gives the lucky recipient free grandstand or clubhouse admission as well as preferred parking. With all the turmoil in the last week concerning the transfer of the track from the State of New Jersey to Morris Bailey, kudos to the Monmouth publicity department for the optimism.

We covered Monmouth and New Jersey racing for more than a decade for a Trenton newspaper and, if history is any indication, we’ll make an educated guess that an “11^th-hour deal” will likely be brokered, just in time for the opening of the stable area this spring. Until then, get ready for more posturing from all four camps – the thoroughbred and standardbred factions, the Christie administration, and Morris Bailey’s attorney. Coming into play in this whole charade are the off-track wagering licenses and revenue, which are quite lucrative.

The Monmouth situation had us doing a little digging into the archives to refresh our memory as to when off-track wagering was legalized in New Jersey. The answer was August of 2001, more than 10 years ago. Since then, only three OTW sites have been built: in Vineland, Woodbridge and Toms River. Greenwood/Pennwood (or whatever it calls itself) has the rights to build one on the old Garden State Park property in Cherry Hill, but has made no attempt (for whatever reason) to do so, although Greenwood certainly erected its Turf Clubs in suburban Philadelphia and environs in record time. Another N. J. site is earmarked for Bayonne (my hometown) and recent eyewitness reports have stated that preliminary foundation work is going on, with workers there every day for the last 2 weeks or more. This OTW, in our opinion, would be a goldmine, as there are plenty of horseplayers in Hudson County (my grandfather and I used to have to cross the Bayonne Bridge into Staten Island to get some action at a New York City OTB). Here’s what the site looked like in March:

Speaking of the New Jersey racing crisis, what will become of the $1 million Haskell Invitational if the Monmouth meet gets deep-sixed? Would it be transferred to another racetrack? Or would it most likely be discontinued?  Across the river at Parx Racing there will be a Grade 1 event for 3-year-old fillies in 2012, the Cotillion Stakes, which was the beneficiary of the goodwill of the Graded Stakes Committee, who upgraded the 1-1/16 mile race from Grade 2 status, snubbing the prestigious Delaware Handicap once again for that lofty status.  

Speaking of Parx, some misinformation was recently disseminated concerning the Cotillion, which is going to get a purse boost to $1 million in 2012.  KYW-1060 AM in Philadelphia had an on-air item that heralded the Cotillion as the “first Grade 1 race in Pennsylvania” upon the news of its upgrading. The KYW story stated that “…this may be the shot in the arm that horse racing needs in Pennsylvania.” But a quick check of the history books tells us the Cotillion was a Grade 1 race once before, in 1973. Oops!