Monticello: Purse windfall coming soon
With Resorts World opening a new gaming facility featuring 1,200 slot machines and electronic table games in the Newburgh, New York, area, one of the beneficiaries will be those racing at Monticello Raceway. For the embattled track that has faced horse shortages during the summer months while offering purses well below the nationwide average, the sun could finally be starting to rise over the Catskill Mountains that surround the historic facility.
According to Joe Faraldo, general counsel for the Monticello Harness Horseman's Association, the track should see purses rise by 150 percent within a month. That estimated increase comes after seeing initial revenue figures from the Resorts World casino, as well as payments from the Newburgh OTB parlor that is due to the Monticello purse account.
"If all goes the way we expect it to go and they don't try to pull something legally, we expect the increase very shortly - within a month," said Faraldo.
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For the week of January 9, which includes four racing days of 11 races each, the purse account paid out $254,700 for an average of $63,675 per card or $5,788 per race. The projected increase would push the per-card total to $159,187 and the average per race to $14,470 based off the current week. By comparison, Yonkers Raceway, which offers some of the highest purses in the country and by far the highest in the state, had an average purse distribution of $174,180 during its last full week (Dec. 12 to 16) of racing and a per-race average of $17,773.
While Faraldo admitted there is no guarantee that the casino revenue stream will remain as strong in the future as the "newness" wears off and the downstate casinos closer to the New York City limits get approval to proceed with full-blown operations, he will closely monitor the situation. One certainty is that Monticello, which often out-handles the other tracks in New York despite small fields and often fewer races, seems likely to attract plenty of horses and perhaps increase its presence as a product worth following.