Freehold: Purse increase produces immediate results

When the New Jersey legislature voted to provide a $20 million yearly subsidy to horse racing, the focus was clearly on the $6 million that would be earmarked for The Meadowlands and how it could pump some life into the track. Lost in the shuffle perhaps was the other Standardbred track in the Garden State – Freehold Raceway.

While Freehold is getting just under one-quarter ($1.6 million) of the amount received by The Meadowlands, that sum can go a long way to boosting up a purse account that has averaged just over $40,000 per day in recent weeks.

Officially announced on March 16, the track has increased purses across the board by 50% starting with March 22. The infusion of money has pumped up the bottom condition from $3,200 to $4,700 and the Preferred Handicap on the upper end from $8,000 to $12,000. Total purses on the March 22 card come to $67,600.

The new purse structure places Freehold at levels well above local tracks like Monticello, on par with Saratoga for some classes and just below Pocono on some of the lower overnight races.

Even with the increase, there is still more money on the table that must be distributed. With 54 dates remaining on the 2019 racing calendar at Freehold, an average increase of $20,000 per card results in just over $1 million. That leaves almost $600,000 in funds for future increases.

“We haven’t actually gotten the money yet so they wanted to be conservative,” said Karen Fagliarone, Director of Racing at Freehold Raceway. “I’m expecting another bump up when we get the money or I might do some sort of claiming series. That decision hasn’t been made yet.”

The increased purses resulted in immediate dividends in terms of horse population. Last Friday Fagliarone said there were just 65 horses in the entry box and this week that number spiked to 105.

"We are going to card 11 races on Friday and 12 on Saturday. Last week we had 10 races both days,” said Fagliarone, who was cautiously optimistic about the future since Harrah’s Philadelphia in Chester, PA opens next week. “Chester opens up next week so the numbers have to fall off. It is a snowball effect. The Meadowlands will take horses from Chester, so Chester will write cheaper classes and take some of mine, but the edge that we have is daytime racing and I’m local to New Jersey farms like Gaitway. So trainers will throw an extra horse in the box because it won’t cost them $300 to ship and they don’t have to spend an entire day travelling.”

Freehold races Fridays and Saturdays through May 18 and resumes that two-day-a-week schedule from August 30 until December 28. Post time daily is 12:30 p.m.