Meadowlands: Post drag to be reinstated this weekend

On Monday (May 12) The Meadowlands announced that it was reinstating post-time drag beginning with the races for this weekend, abandoning an experiment that began in mid-April.

“[We] will revert back to the formula of sending the horses onto the track at 0 minutes to post and going to the gate approximately seven minutes later,” said a release from the track. “Heeding customer complaints regarding the practice of "dragging" post time out, as is the new normal at virtually all tracks, and going off at "0" resulted in a sharp decline in export handle. Among the lessons learned was that our CAW customers could not adjust, resulting in a large percentage of the lost handle.”

Handle at The Meadowlands has been down approximately $2 million per weekend for the last three to four weeks.

The drag elimination experiment also included reduced card length, with live racing often concluding 20 to 30 minutes earlier than in the past. According to COO/GM Jason Settlemoir, that practice will continue despite the return of the drag.

“The goal is still to be done between 11:15-11:30,” said Settlemoir, who added that closing out CAW players from the win pool with two minutes to post time remains on the agenda pending New Jersey Racing Commission approval of the new tote company software.

“It already began as the CAW’s were self-monitoring,” added Settlemoir.

The track’s release went on to outline the need for a significant marketing budget to accomplish the goal of getting younger people to the track and said it would push that initiative if a casino license was ever awarded.

Racing at The Meadowlands resumes on Friday at 6:20 PM (EDT) and continues on Saturday with the A.J. Cutler Memorial stake as the featured race.