I will play Monmouth Park for the season, two points I would like to make; Finally a program card besides Belmont that will have quality races and on real dirt! My second point is; this is a known fact for most people who play Gulfstream Park. Monmouth and Gulfstream Park uses the same dirt composite. Look at many past performance of horses who raced at both tracks. If they fire at GP, they fire at Monmouth.

And one day in the future when Hialeah Park re-opens for TB's this will hold true for Hialeah and Belmont Park.

I am looking forward to an exciting and I think ultimately successful meet at Monmouth.

I believe that the higher purses will bring the quality horses and larger fields that we all prefer to wager on.....

As a horseplayer how can you ignore Monmouth? I looked at the Saturday card and when I get back home in the afternoon that is where my action is going. I totally believe in what they are doing and I'll support it with my wagering $,

To all my racing enthusiast friends? One angle we will see this weekend at Monmouth. A horse that competeted in 10k claiming races doing a drop down for 5k claimer. The oldest trick in the book when you can drop down for cheaper because if the horse get claimed for 5k but the winner share of the purse is 18k why not go for the drop? Beware of the sneaky claimer game.

Ole saying goes; the more money around, the more crooked stuff will happen...we are talking about NJ right? lol

Cue background music.
"Woke up this morning and got yourself a gun, got yourself a gun....."

I believe this is the ultimate fallacy.

Sounds good.

The $50 million question

Monmouth Park is a bulwark against time. The stately 65-year-old racetrack peddles charm and tradition, and those wares have never faded here. Fresh coats of green and white paint are usually the only things required to spruce up the place every summer. And although the 2007 Breeders' Cup necessitated renovations and a few additions to the facility, the postcard-pretty racetrack has always offered satisfying continuity. Until now, of course.

http://www.drf.com/news/article/113140.html

So what's the number???
 

What would be the handle number for Opening Day/Opening Weekend that would be "great?"

Don't they have to do some boffo #s every race day to make this worth it?

I admittedly don't play much Monmouth, but I will absolutely be looking at tomorrow's card.

Even if this succeeds for Monmouth, isn't it likely to be short lived? Once NY gets the slots, if Monmouth is killing NY racing what prevents NY from doing the same thing? NY will undoubtedly have more money to throw around since the casino interests in Atlantic City will never allow NJ racetracks to have casinos to provide additional capitol.

At least Monmouth and the state of New Jersey are trying something different. As fans of racing I think we all agree the quality of racing has declined sharply in the past few years. I hope this experiment works and I have the Monmouth card on Formy as I type. I can count the number of times I've downloaded a Monmouth card on one hand and still have fingers left.

Andy Beyer wrote an article on this topic, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...052101986.html .
Another great article which pretty much tells it like it is in my opinion.

Yep in 2000 and dead those VLT's will be pumping cash.. Hello gambling(slot) is NOT what it used to be...Uhm your the last game in town

Slots are a short term thing. Don't you think at some point state governments will pull the plug on racetracks receiving racino money.
Racing needs to reinvent itself and perhaps this concept they are trying will be successful. At the very least this experiment is out of the box thinking.

Exactly. This is a step towards (hopefully) racetracks being self-sufficient again and not needing slots to carry the load.

Because I play slots outside of the time when races are going on, I learned over the past few years how's slots are used to supplement the horse industry.

Most regulated slots payout 80% of it's machine take per month. Some claim to be higher like in AC around 88%-90% that last % is now profits for the casinos minus slush money towards the state/ horsemen fund.

This is how tracks such as Philly Park, Delaware Park, Charlestown, Mountaineer Park and other locations went from being the leaky roof circuit to top purse tracks.

So by all means for horseracing to thrive; we need the bus full of retirees, the home boys with their gold grills (teeth) and hoochies hanging with them. Bet as much money in the slots to give the horsetracks better purses which gives us better races.

Sounds cold hearted? Well just think about how we support a system that takes out 10-25% of the pool and if we are lucky to get an exoctic for over 5k we will pay an additional 28%. I still get pissed for hitting tickets knowing 50% of my ticket had been a part of take out and tax.

New Jersey Breds.

Ugh.

This isn't your fathers Monmouth Park. Box car payouts , a pick 5 carry, horses winning from off the pace... IMHO a smashing success.

Just by increasing purses, the speed bias that is notoriously known at monmouth automaticaly goes away? Amazing!