Jul

16

Monmouth proving a point

by Barry Roos
Published: July 16, 2010 Leave a Comment
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For the past few years, it seemed casinos and slots were the only thing that could saving racing. Wrong. Casinos are getting to the point where there are so many, they are not attracting the big crowds of the glory days for Foxwoods and the like. Revenues have decreased, and yes they have reached the point of over saturation.

Then along came a novel idea. How about we jack up the purses, increase fields size and quality?   Monmouth decided to try the bold experiment.  And thus far it is succeeding, in a big way.

This from the Bloodhorse:

For the first 24 days of the 2010 meeting — with Monmouth racing Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Monday holidays — average attendance is 10,572. The average on-track betting is $752,718 and average daily total betting is $7,672,255.

Compared to the first 24 days of the 2009 meet (using only Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holiday Monday cards), the daily attendance is up 13% and on-track handle is up almost 43%, according to the track. But total handle has taken the sharpest turn, jumping nearly 118% over last year.

Wow.   Now here is proof you can try new things and not be dependent on expanded gambling.  Is everyone happy? No, there are some horsemen who used to do better now running into having to compete. But the bettors like it, no more short fields, and handicapping is a challenge.  So to those complaining, suck it up, and adapt.

The experiment won’t go unnoticed, and the result will be a better product and owners can actually make money. No it won’t be easy, but no one said the game was easy.  True the naysayers will say Monmouth has less days of racing. So what?  Shorter better meets are better than year long boring diet of lousy racing.

Congrats to Monmouth for the effort. No matter how it works out, you are game for trying.


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