Racing commission allows Monmouth to pay out backlog of purses

The New Jersey Racing Commission on Monday approved a request by Monmouth Park that will allow the track to pay out purses without first receiving the results of post-race drug tests, according to Monmouth’s top official.

Dennis Drazin, the head of the company that operates Monmouth under a lease with the state, said on Monday that the approval will allow the track to pay out purses for any race held at the track as long as it has been 11 days since the race was declared official. The racing commission’s order must first be signed by Gov. Phil Murphy for the policy to go into effect, but Drazin believes the governor will sign the order within the next 48 hours.

Monmouth had sought the ruling in order to address delays in receiving post-race test results from the state’s testing laboratory, Truesdail in California. Last week, Drazin said that delays in analyzing the post-race tests had prevented Monmouth from paying out purses for nearly the entire meet. The Monmouth Park meet began on July 3.

Under New Jersey’s existing racing regulations, purses cannot be distributed without first receiving the post-race results. The measure submitted by Monmouth was an attempt to partially suspend that rule to address the backlog in purse payments, which Drazin said was having a significant financial impact on horsemen and equine supply companies.

“We’re hopeful this will all get expedited, and we think we’ll be able to issue those payments starting Wednesday or Thursday,” Drazin said.

Horses running at Monmouth have earned nearly $11 million in purses, but, aside from the first few days of the meet, the track has only distributed purse winnings to those horses that were not tested post-race. New Jersey’s racing regulations require post-race drug tests for all winning horses, plus horses selected at random or by the stewards.