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Originally Posted by SuperPickle
I've seen every operating trick in the book and I don't any that solve Monmouth's problem.
Btw... my hunch is the saw stall requests and asked for less dates. They know what's coming. Navarro is like 10-12% of their horse population. If he doesn't show up that's a killer.
I just don't see an angle that saves them. You've got three tracks within 150 miles that have slots and bigger purses. Not to mention Delaware, Penn Nat and Charles Town.
I refuse to believe the casinos will ever let them get slots and honestly its a moot point because the state would never let them keep enough of the money to make purses high enough to bring back the horse population. New Jersey has a massive pension deficit. There's zero chance of the state giving up enough of a revenue share to REALLY help the horsemen. After the state got theres followed by the casino operators the purse impact would be small.
On top of it you've got land that is massively valuable. Probably too valuable to run horses on for a couple months of the year. It's a resort/seasoal location so you really have minimal wiggle room on moving dates. Nights? But lights are a seven figure investment.
And on top of everything the state breeding program is already dead. I don't think they produced 100 foals in 2016. That may sound minor but it used to be 300-500 back in the day. And all 300-500 were bred to run at Monmouth. So you had a built in foundation of horses. Now that's gone.
The Meadowlands may survive because the state can't really put anything else there but Monmouth appears terminal.
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I couldnt agree more. Night racing would be an option, position itself as a tbred option at a time that is dominated by harness and maybe catch some of the west coast crowd with their export. Realistically their on track handle isnt huge and lets face it we leave in a simo world now, at least 98% of tracks do. That investment for the lights is huge and with so few days now I am not sure it would be a good move.
That being said, I like to be on track with a beer in hand at 11:30am when they open. I would hate night racing and doubt I would go much. It would kill everything I love about it.
