New Jersey race-date legislation supported by horsemen, opposed by breeders
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A bill has been introduced into the New Jersey Legislature that would reduce the minimum number of statutorily required Thoroughbred racing days from 50 to 25, setting up a conflict between horsemen and breeders in the state.
Under current law, the operator of Monmouth Park, a horsemen-led company called Darby Development, must run at least 141 race dates in the state to capture revenues from account-wagering and simulcasting. However, the law also states that Darby can run as few as 50 dates as long as it has an agreement to do so with horsemen. The bill would reduce the minimum to 25 dates.
Darby is scheduled this year to run 50 dates at Monmouth, nine all-turf programs at the Meadowlands, and one card at Far Hills. Darby has been running approximately 55 programs a year over the past five years under its horsemen’s agreement.
Dennis Drazin, the chief executive officer of Darby, said that both the company and its horsemen support the new minimum as a “protection measure” due to uncertainty over the direction of the industry both in New Jersey and nationwide. Losing access to ADW and simulcast revenue would doom the live-racing product at Monmouth, Drazin said.
Thoroughbred horsemen are currently slated to receive a $10 million purse subsidy this year, but that has to be negotiated through a legislative process. Nationally, foal crop numbers continue to decline.
“There is no intention whatsoever to reduce days next year,” Drazin said. “But if we don’t get the subsidy, if we continue to have problems with field size, we better have the means to reduce days [below 50]. If we got to the point where we would have to do less than 50, we’d lose all that revenue, and then live racing is dead.”
The reduction in the minimum is being opposed by the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association of New Jersey, which sent out a memo to its members on Tuesday urging breeders to contact their legislators. The memo said that “this drastic reduction would effectively eliminate the foundation necessary to sustain Thoroughbred breeding in New Jersey.”
“It is critical that legislators understand how important Thoroughbred breeding is to New Jersey’s agricultural economy, open space preservation, jobs, and long-standing racing tradition,” the memo said.
Like most states outside of Kentucky, the breeding industry in New Jersey has been in the doldrums for a decade. In 2006, there were 452 mares bred in the state, but only 46 mares were bred in 2024, according to records from The Jockey Club. The number of foals registered as New Jersey-breds is roughly double that figure due to eligibility rules allowing foals who are born in the state to be registered as statebreds. The number of stallions in the state has dropped from 34 in 2006 to seven in 2024.
Drazin said that he was attempting to hold discussions with representatives from the breeding industry to explain the viewpoint of both Monmouth and its horsemen.
The Senate version of the bill is scheduled to be heard in the Budget and Appropriations Committee on Thursday. The Assembly version has not yet been posted to a committee.
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