Monmouth Park- Kulina to Retire
 

Monmouth announced his retirement earlier today.

http://www.monmouthpark.com/News.aspx?id=11425

Curious to see what the future will be now. I might go back ;)

I have no comments on the past few years that Bob was at the helm. I wish him a happy retirement.
My big concern here is the reduction of racing days to where the meet resembles a state fair. NJ bred breeding is at an all time low and the competition from surrounding tracks as well as the whole Navarro situation has hurt the track significantly. Maybe sports wagering gets its due and the track manages to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

Good riddance. Kulina gets 194K in pension money a year from the state. (Monmouth Park was owned and operated by the state under his tenure before the NJTHA took over) And in addition he was getting an ungodly salary from the Darby Development the manager of MP-a salary ultimately paid by the horsemen. He has had no vision forward for the track. This year, Kulina was opposed to twilight racing, he said no to racing on 4th of July when it was on a weekday, he wasn’t in favor of next year’s racing schedule, just to name a few of the issues. The entire NJTHA board voiced to Drazin that it wanted him out, he was holding the track back. Goodbye Bobby. Baffert is going to miss you and the suitcases of money you gave as `appearance fees` for him and his horses.

I don't have any ill will toward the guy but Bluto you are absolutely right the guy either had zero vision or was just collecting a paycheck. In addition to the points you raise, look at what happened with William Hill Room. Completely unused before, now it has become a focal point even before there is any sports betting.

Part of Monmouth's appeal has to be as a more multifaceted entertainment venue, with racing at its core. Things like the BC party and other events at Wm Hill are part of that vision, but Kulina either lacked the vision or wherewithal to make meaningful change.

I strongly believe after 2007 he became complacent in his job. He walked around the track like he was better than anyone he talked to. In my 15 plus years of racing there he was the only one associated with the racing office who acted like this. I am also disappointed that the horseman agreed to any form of compensation to him that wasnt based on achieving certain goals. Get someone in there that is young and energetic enough with the BS.

Big shakeup @Mth Park
 

that is pretty bazaar, the $194,00 a year pension. you just basically pointed out the biggest reason why racing is going backward. these people that run race tracks are overpaid and very underproductive.

On the menu - more state bred races.

Oh goodie goodie.
:puke:

Well this should be interesting.

Dempsey is a good guy. He knows what he is doing since he has been a racing secretary for quite a longtime. On the other hand a media guy filling the roll of racing secretary is something no one is excited over. Hopefully Dempsey will be the behind the scenes RS.
Since Navarro has been given a "new" life at GP I'm sure they will rely heavily on him to fill races next year. That being said MP will need a revenue stream to go forward. Or they can hope Pennsylvania reduces the racing days and purses at Parx and the playing field purse wise is leveled.

Well there is the sports betting that will be decided by SCOTUS, most likely in the spring. With a few tweaks to the law, betfair will be a player should the opinion go Jersey way. And will Hill is just itching to take bets on football in the fall.

A few bucks will surely go Darby,s way.

Allan

I think the only way they could run more state bred races would be to run standardbreds. The T-bred foal crop is a shadow of its former self- see below.

The oddest thing about this to me, other than an attorney/media guy being the racing secretary, is to delay formal announcement until Spring. I would think you would want the new team fully on board in short order, trying to recruit barns from winter locales.


1995 436
1996 454
1997 414
1998 400
1999 402
2000 420
2001 344
2002 401
2003 353
2004 334
2005 344
2006 330
2007 401
2008 303
2009 260
2010 237
2011 193
2012 170
2013 152
2014 118
2015 122

Next year, the Drazin plan is to close MP backstretch completely on October 1.
Wait until the trainers hear about that! Where do you train your horses for that 1 month gap until Tampa opens beginning of November?
Prediction- there will be even less horses stabled at MP in 2018 than there were in 2017. Go to Delaware Park- at least you are assured of stall space/training there until late October-just ship in to MP.

Doubt Delaware will let you stable and train there and turn around and race at Monmouth very often.