Meadowlands Survival Guide 2010

The 2009 Meadowlands harness meet has mercifully come to a close. While the final figures have not been released, no doubt the handle and number of starters per race have taken a serious hit with attendance continuing to decline. Sure, some of the downturn is attributable to the economy but the major contributor to the decline of the Meadowlands is the lack of slot machines. Horses that could handle the half mile track crossed the river to Yonkers Raceway. Once Pocono and Chester Downs opened, many of the stables headed to Pennsylvania in search for slot fueled purses. For the first time in the Meadowlands harness history, $7,500 claimers graced the oval, seven and eight horse fields became the norm. Casual and serious bettors turned away from the Meadowlands product. In a nutshell, everything management said would happen as a result of the lack of the VLTs did occur.

Regardless of what the governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel finally decides upon, 2010 promises to be more of the same; the Meadowlands will be at a competitive disadvantage next year. The question is, based on what happened this year, is there anything the Meadowlands can do to make the best of a lousy situation next year? The answer is yes; here are some ideas which may help improve the quality of the racing next year. Some of these ideas will require cooperation from the horsemen’s association. Hopefully, they will work with management to stablize the situation.

Introduce Classified Racing – Readers of this blog have heard me call for classified racing in the past. This time, the goal of introducing classified racing is different; it is to increase the horse population. You have some horses racing at racinos where while the purse structure has been greatly improved, it is still below the Meadowland’s structure. A horse successful at one of these ‘second tier’ racinos may be tempted to try the Meadowlands but due to the artificially high purses, they would have to race in a conditioned class where they are overmatched due to money earned or be forced to race in a claimer which the owner doesn’t want to do. As a result, they stay at their home track. If the Meadowlands had classified racing, the racing secretary would be able to classify the horse in the proper class thus ensuring the owner that their horse would have a fair chance to win without having to get thumped in four or five starts to get their earnings down, thus encouraging stables to migrate to the Meadowlands.

Less is Better – Can’t get a race card with ten races with at least eight horses entered? Combine races or drop the race. Better to have a card with eight races with competitive full fields than race ten races with short fields. There are days Hollywood Park has only eight races a day. The fear of racing only eight races on a card is less money would be wagered. However, wagering is down due to short fields. Have races with full fields and the handle will increase. Also, being will to card less than ten races will help the Meadowlands avoid having to card even cheaper claiming or conditioned races.

Handicap Conditions – If the decision is made to continue with conditioned races, if you have races which don’t fill, combine the races and handicap them based on their original conditions, For example, have a race with nw6000cd with five in the box and a race with nw7500cd with five in the box. Combine the race and put make it a handicap; nw6000cd horses draw for the inside with the nw7500cd drawing outside instead of racing two races with short fields. What do you do if you have one class with five in the box and six in the box in the other class and you want to combine them? Add a little to the purse and let all eleven horses race (yes, a trailer). Better to keep the horse racing than forcing them to wait a week to race.

Future Rewards – Keep track of owners and/or trainers that race at the Meadowlands next year. Make it known that it is the intention of management at the Meadowlands (and Freehold) to introduce some late closing series if/when alternative gaming comes which will be restricted to owners and/or trainers that have a minimum number of starts next year at each track or let it be known if there is an overflow of horses wanting to race at the Meadowlands, preference will be given to trainers or owners that raced a certain number of starts at the Meadowlands in 2010. Can this be done? Once Yonkers reopened there were rewards for the horsemen who raced during the lean years and Delaware gave preference to their local horsemen once slots were introduced. The concern of not being able to race for bigger purses in the future may persuade horsemen to not completely abandon the Meadowlands.

Reality is slots will not be coming to the Meadowlands until 2011 at the earliest if at all (my read is they will be coming). Bad enough we may be seeing $2,500 claimers at Freehold the way things are going but if something is not done to stimulate the horse population at the Meadowlands, parity may be achieved with the thoroughbred program in New Jersey; $5,000 claimers may be trotting and pacing around the Meadowlands oval and even less money will be wagered and purses will be cut. The downward spiral will continue. Some drastic steps need to be taken in order to put the brakes on the decline and stabilize things until the slots show up. The question is whether or not management and horsemen are up to the challenge.