Today the announcement was made that Jason Settlemoir was taking over as CEO and General Manager of the Meadowlands. With respect to the General Manager position, Settlemoir takes over the post which has been vacant since the departure of Mike Newlin who moved on after one season to take over a Penn National property in Florida. Settlemoir takes on this new position will continuing on as Vice President of Racing and Sponsorship at Tioga and Vernon Downs.
No disrespect to Newlin, but Settlemoir was the logical
choice from the beginning. Having been
with Jeff Gural since the opening of Tioga Downs and re-opening of Vernon
Downs, what better candidate could be chosen to execute the vision for horse
racing at the Meadowlands than the person who developed the model with
Gural? Having developed a model which
is successful in upstate New York, Settlemoir should have no problem building
on the initial steps his predecessor has taken.
The selection of Settlemoir continues to reflect the
commitment Gural has towards harness racing.
Having dealt with Jason in the past, he has a passion for harness racing
and fights the battle to keeping racing as relevant as possible. In addition, having other additional duties
in the sport as Chairman of the Board and Past President of the USHWA, Director
of Simulcasting at the Delaware County Fair, serving as back-up track announcer
at the Little Brown Jug, and being a USTA Director clearly shows this is not a
person who is merely holding the seat warm until slots come to East
Rutherford.
I am convinced there is a new model for racing to be found
which will be successful and it will be found first in East Rutherford. With Settlemoir’s appointment, it re-affirms
my belief.
1 comment:
I've never met Jason Settlemoir, but I've seen him working the customer areas at Tioga. It's refreshing to see a top guy helping bettors and generally making himself available.
If only those in his position at other tracks took as much interest in customers, there would be a lot more customers to serve.
If there's a downside to Jason taking over at The Meadowlands, it's the lack of respect he gets from certain horsemen groups and USTA directors. He must feel like a Democrat at a Rush Limbaugh party.
Racing needs Jason to succeed even if the old time leaders of the sport don't know it or don't want to admit it.
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