Sometimes you need to hit rock bottom to do something. In New Jersey a proposal has been submitted to the legislature by Ronald Dancer which will allow standardbred tracks and the SBOANJ to mutually come to an agreement to use some of their purse account for promoting the sport and NJ breds in the state. Isn't it ironic such a proposal is being offered in a state where horsemen are struggling yet no such bill comes forward in a state with slots?
While some states have horsemen that make donations for marketing outside of the purse account, many are content to do nothing, either thinking it is up to the track or seemingly feel it is hopeless to market.
Let's not kid ourselves, while not speaking for Freehold Raceway, Jeff Gural has plenty of skin in the success of racing in New Jersey at the Meadowlands and the horsemen are responding accordingly in a good faith effort to do something to help promote the game. There is no mandate to how much is to be given, it is to be negotiated. This clearly is not the attitude of 'we put on the show and you do the rest'.
It will be interesting to see how those marketing dollars are used.
2 comments:
Has anybody ever determined how much "skin" Mr. Gural has in the game? He often refers to "his" investment, but it seems that most, if not all of the investment put into the Meadowlands has come from......investors! Has it ever been established what percentage of the actual investment comes from Mr. Gural personally? (Not trying to nitpick here, but hopefully to get an answer to a question that has long gone unanswered).
From what I am able to ascertain, Mr. Gural is in for over $3 million.
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