Monmouth at The Meadowlands turf-only meet begins

Horsemen entered 69 horses in the six turf races that will make up the first of nine all-turf cards held by Monmouth Park at The Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., starting on Friday night.

Five of the six races are being contested at 1 1/16 miles, while the other, the opener, is carded at five furlongs. First post is 7 p.m. Eastern, with the final race of the card slated for 9:20 Eastern.

Monmouth Park has held a meet at The Meadowlands in the fall for more than a decade, giving local horsemen a chance for turf racing through nearly the end of October. The nine cards will comprise six turf races each. Racing will be conducted on Friday and Saturday nights through Oct. 22, with the exception of Oct. 15, a dark day to accommodate the Far Hills steeplechase meet scheduled earlier that day.

As was the case during the recently concluded Monmouth meet, BetMakers will offer fixed-odds wagering on the races at The Meadowlands, with betting available through the company’s website and ontrack at both The Meadowlands and Monmouth, according to Tom Luicci, a spokesman for Monmouth. Luicci said that The Meadowlands will have a designated floor for tellers that can take fixed-odds bets.

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BetMakers, an Australian company, has a 10-year contract to operate Monmouth’s fixed-odds business. Monmouth is the first track in the modern era of U.S. racing to offer fixed-odds betting on racing.

Fixed-odds wagering allows bettors to lock in a price on a horse at the time of the bet, as opposed to pari-mutuel betting, in which the final odds are set at the time the pool closes based on the distribution of bets on the field.

Dennis Drazin, the head of the horsemen-owned company that operates Monmouth, said earlier this week that it is possible that a mobile application offering fixed-odds betting would be launched in the next several weeks. Fixed-odds betting is restricted to New Jersey residents.

The nominal feature on the opening-night card is a $45,000 first-level allowance that attracted nine entries. Trainer Michael Matz has entered two lightly raced horses in Lady Outofthe Blue and Night Command, while Jonathan Thomas will try to get a second win out of Frippet for Augustin Stables, on a surface that likely suits the front-running 3-year-old filly.