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Friday, April 26, 2013

Monte Racing Gets a Late Closing Series

RUS America
 
This year, the Hambletonian Society is sponsoring a late closing series for monté racing at the Meadowlands.  The series, with two preliminary legs on July 19 and July 26 going for $10,000 (divided) concludes with the $25,000 (estimated) final of The Hambletonian Day Monte Trot which will be limited to the top twelve point earners in the series.

Once again, this will be an exhibition series with no wagering as the sport in North America is not yet ready for wagering, but hopefully we will be seeing RUS on wagering cards soon.  However, the conditions this year should ensure more competitive races as horses must have had a clean start under saddle within the last twelve months and must have completed the clean mile in 2:09 on the half mile oval; 2:07 on the five-eighths; 2:05 on tracks larger than the five-eighths oval.  More information is available here.   The nomination deadline (fee $200) is May 15 with a $100 starting fee for each preliminary leg.  With a total of $65,000 available for this series, hopefully trainers will be spending more time getting their horses acclimated under the saddle.

As of today, not many RUS races have been set up yet for the season with the exception of the Hambletonian Day Monte Trot series, but as last year, these races are sure to pop up. 

For those interested in Racing Under Saddle, you may visit the Monté America website or visit them on Facebook.

2 comments:

Marv S. said...

This might be a good opportunity for the NJ racing community (M1, NJSBOA, NJRC, participants, HANA, etc.) to come together and make the Hambo Day final of the monte race series a wagering event. The purse is large enough to prevent shenanigans. Let's see if the American betting public has any interest in monte racing. I love watching and betting on monte racing in France.

That Blog Guy said...

To be perfectly honest, I don't think the riders have the skill to make RUS a wagering event at this point; everyone needs more real life experience. I envision before pari-mutuel racing takes place a circuit where RUS can be showcased and bettors become more confident of everyone's ability.

But to answer your immediate question, before the NJRC can permit wagering on monte racing, state law needs to be changed to allow for wagering on standardbreds under saddle and then they would need to craft formal rules. I suspect we are at least a year, if not two years away from wagering.