Monmouth Park Racetrack is an American race track for thoroughbred horse racing in Oceanport, New Jersey, United States. It is owned by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority and is operated under a five-year lease as a partnership with Darby Development, LLC.
Monmouth Park's marquee event is the Haskell Invitational, named after Amory L. Haskell. The Haskell was first run in 1968 as a handicap, but was made into an Invitational Handicap in 1981. It is now a 1â…›-mile test for three-year-olds run in late July. Monmouth Park also now showcases the Jersey Derby originally run at Garden State Park until its closure in 2001.
History
Long Branch Racetrack
The original track was opened by the Monmouth Park Association on July 30, 1870 in Eatontown,NJ. It was later bought by David D. Withers, George L. Lorillard, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., and George P. Wetmore after which Withers ran the facility for more than a decade during which time he helped found racings Board of Control, a predecessor to The Jockey Club. From 1882 to 1890, the track increased in popularity, but legislation proposed in 1891 and enacted in 1894 barred parimutuel betting in New Jersey, and the track closed its doors. In May 1894, the Township Committee at Eatontown, New Jersey ordered the seizure and sale of the Monmouth Park Association's grandstand and other property for the payment of back taxes and on May 7 was sold at a public auction.
Some of the major races held at the Long Branch track included the Champion Stakes, the Freehold Stakes, and the Monmouth Cup.
Monmouth Park Jockey Club
In 1946, the New Jersey Legislature passed a bill providing for state regulation of horse racing. Spurred on by Amory L. Haskell, who led the legislative charge to once again permit wagering on horse racing in New Jersey and Philip H. Iselin, a New York City textile magnate, along with the backing of Reeve Schley, Joseph M. Roebling, John M. MacDonald, Townsend B. Martin, and James Cox Brady, Jr., the new Monmouth Park (organized as the Monmouth Park Jockey Club) opened on June 19, 1946 after a 53-year hiatus with 18,724 in attendance.
Monmouth Park Racetrack
The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority purchased Monmouth Park from its previous owners, the Monmouth Park Jockey Club, in 1985, in a deal valued at $45 million. The NJSEA still retains the corporate name "Monmouth Park Jockey Club".
The Vans Warped Tour, a touring music and extreme sports festival, is held annually at the racetrack. Monmouth Park marks the New York stop on the nation-wide tour, which visits the area during July.
In 2011, a five-year lease was signed with Morris Bailey, co-owner of Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, to provide a marketing partnership between the casino and racetrack. The agreement allowed Resorts to sponsor the Haskell Invitational, and possibilities include a merging of loyalty programs as well as bringing entertainers' appearances at the casino to the racetrack. The program is part of a strategy to mesh horse racing with casino gambling.
Physical Attributes
The main track is a one mile (1.6 km) dirt oval with chutes for 6 furlong and 1¼ mile races.
The turf course is seven furlongs in circumference, with a diagonal chute for races between 1-mile (1.6 km) and 1⅛ miles. A re-design of the grass course for the 2006 season brought with it a new, second chute to accommodate 5½ furlong sprint races. Turf races can be run along the hedge, or with the portable rail out 12 feet (dubbed the "Haskell Course"), 24 feet ("Monmouth Course") or 36 feet ("Lennox Course").
The Stable Area, located directly to the north of the back stretch of the main track, contains a total of forty barns and stables, twelve north of the New Jersey Transit's North Jersey Coast Line (connected by its own service and access road) and twenty eight on the main complex.
The Wolf Hill Farm, which served Monmouth Park as a private stable and practice facility, is located adjacent to and immediately west of the main complex. Wolf Hill, owned and operated by the Valentino Family from the nearby City of Long Branch, New Jersey featured barns, stables and a practice track featuring a dirt oval and turf course identical to that at Monmouth Park's main facility only built to 50% scale. The Valentino Family sold Wolf Hill Farm to the Monmouth Park Jockey Club in 1963 which then became part of the greater Monmouth Park Complex. It was transferred to state ownership in the 1986 takeover by the NJSEA and was eventually sold to the Monmouth County Park System in 1998 which now operates the site as a passive recreation park. While Wolf Hill ceased operating as a farm following the 1963 sale, owners and trainers continued to use Wolf Hill's practice track well into the 1990s. Remnants of the practice were clearly visible on the site until after the 2009 meet. After the 2009 meet, construction began in the Wolf Hill area, eliminating the last of the practice track.
TV Personalites
- Caton Bredar (1995â€"1998)
- Barbara Foster (1995â€"1997)
- Jennifer Burke (2000â€"2004)
- Carolyn Conley
- Brad Thomas (?-present)
- Thomas Cassidy (?-present)
- Larry Collmus (1994â€"2014)
- Mike Curci
- Gordon Richards
- Matt Carothers (1998)
Travis Stone (2014)
Transportation
The Park is served by New Jersey Transit's North Jersey Coast Line during the racing season.
A special train called the "Pony Express" was discontinued after the 2005 racing season. This train operated between Hoboken Terminal and the racetrack, terminating on a rail siding near the grandstand entrance. It was often scouted out by railfans due to the variety of equipment that were used on the train in recent years, ranging from the 1970 vintage Pullman Standard Erie Lackawanna Comet I cars to modern Alstom Metro-North Comet Vs.
Racing
- Grade 1:
- Haskell Invitational Handicap
- United Nations Stakes
- Grade 2:
- Molly Pitcher Stakes
- Grade 3:
- Boiling Springs Stakes (Turf)
- Eatontown Handicap
- Jersey Shore Breeders' Cup Stakes
- Long Branch Stakes
- Matchmaker Stakes
- Monmouth Oaks
- Monmouth Stakes
- Oceanport Stakes
- Pegasus Stakes
- Philip H. Iselin Stakes
- Red Bank Handicap
- Salvator Mile Handicap
- Violet Stakes
- Ungraded stakes
- Colleen Stakes
- Longfellow Stakes
- Miss Woodford Stakes
- Jersey Derby
- Lamplighter Stakes
- Majestic Light Stakes
- Monmouth Beach Stakes
- Regret Stakes
- Rumson Stakes
- Sapling Stakes
- Tyro Stakes
Breeders' Cup World Championships
On October 26 and 27, 2007, Monmouth Park hosted the Breeders' Cup for the first time in its history.
The 2007 Event also marked the first time the event has been held over two days and also the creation of three new races held on Day 1 of the Championships.
Winners of Races:
Day 1
Filly & Mare Sprint-Maryfield
Juvenile Turf-Nownownow
Dirt Mile-Corinthian
Day 2
Juvenile Fillies-Indian Blessing
Juvenile-War Pass
Filly & Mare Turf-Lahudood
Sprint-Midnight Lute
Mile-Kip Deville
Distaff-Ginger Punch
Turf-English Channel
Classic-Curlin
The Classic was marred by a fatal injury suffered by George Washington, the 2006 European 3-year-old champion who had returned to training when his stud career was scuttled by fertility problems. He suffered a dislocated fracture of his right front ankle and was euthanized on the track.
Million Dollar Meet
In March 2010, it was announced that Monmouth Park would shorten its summer meet, conducting only 50 days of live racing (down from 141 total thoroughbred days in the state) for a total of $50 million in purse money for the 2010 meet. This was done due to the recent monetary losses of the racetrack industry in New Jersey and made it the most expensive purse structure in North America at the time.
See also
- Gambling in New Jersey
References
External links
- Monmouth Park Racetrack
- New Jersey Horse Enthusiast Web
- New Jersey Horse Online
- Gate2Wire Review
- The Original Monmouth Parks, 1870 and 1890
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