Monmouth sees handle decline during rainy summer meet

Handle on races held at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., during the track’s 52-day summer meet slid significantly on a per-race basis, according to data released by the track on Sunday, the end of the meet.

Monmouth reported that all-sources handle per race card this year was an average of $3,383,872 for the 52-day meet, from May 13 to Sept. 10, a per-card decline of 2.1 percent compared with last year’s 50-day meet. However, Monmouth ran 550 races this year by expanding many of its race cards and holding the two additional race cards, for a per-race average of $319,930, a drop of 6.7 percent when compared with the average for 504 races run last year.

In a release, Monmouth cited the loss of 80 turf races during this year’s meet for the decline in average raceday handle. Races that are moved off the turf generally suffer from scratches due to the surface change, and they often draw significantly less in wagering than races that remain on the turf.

According to Tom Luicci, Monmouth’s director of publicity, average field size for the meet was 7.07 horses per race.

Average attendance for the meet was 8,986, down 2.7 percent compared with the average of 9,234 last year.

During the meet, Monmouth Park opened a sports betting operation on its grounds on June 13, roughly one month after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law prohibiting states from authorizing sports betting. Monmouth Park was a party to the suit that the Supreme Court took up, which was based on the efforts by New Jersey to legalize sports betting stretching back to 2011.

Monmouth officials have credited the sports wagering operation with attracting new customers to the track, and also for generating more interest in after-hours simulcasting. However, the handle numbers do not make a clear case that the sportsbook generated additional handle on Monmouth’s races, as ontrack handle declined 6 percent, on average, according to figures released by the track.

“We got off to a great start, which was unfortunately dampened by the rainy conditions we had to deal with throughout the summer and right up until our final two days of racing,” Dennis Drazin, the chief executive of the company that runs the track on behalf of the state’s horsemen, said in a statement. “We’re proud of the quality of racing we were able to offer once again and we’re encouraged moving forward with the advent of sports betting as part of the fabric of what Monmouth Park has to offer to our patrons.”

Drazin did not immediately return a phone call.

On the track, Jorge Navarro won his sixth straight Monmouth training title while setting a record for number of wins at the track, with 85 winners from 190 starts, a strike rate of 44.7 percent. Jose Ferrer took the rider’s title with 95 winners.