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The theme song for Monmouth Park racetrack is Frank Sinatra’s “Summer Wind,” but it’s an autumn breeze that is blowing fresh air into New Jersey’s thoroughbred industry.
The world is converging on one of the state’s sporting treasures, and the 24th Breeders’ Cup will be historic in more ways than one. Not only is Monmouth Park the host site for what is called (with frequent but not absolute accuracy) the World Thoroughbred Championships, but for the first time the event will be held on two days instead of only one.
The addition of three races to the eight that were contested last year will help create the feeling of a racing “festival” as opposed to a one-day event.
“We have been talking, going back years, about ways to broaden the appeal of and the participation in the event,” said Greg Avioli, president and chief executive officer of the Breeders’ Cup. “One of the main ways to do that is to add another day and add extra races. It’s rather a simple formula: You want a bigger event, you make it bigger.”
The first Breeders’ Cup, held at Hollywood Park in 1984, was comprised of seven races with $13 million in total purse money. This year’s two-day card at the Jersey Shore will feature 11 races and more than $23 million in purses.
On Jan. 8, the Breeders’ Cup announced that three marquee races would be added to the previous slate of eight, the first additions since the Filly and Mare Turf joined the original seven-race lineup in 1999. The new races, which will be run tomorrow, are the Filly and Mare Sprint, the Dirt Mile and the Juvenile Turf.
“We didn’t land on which three races it was going to be until a series of board meetings occurred in December, right around the holidays,” Avioli said. “The one race that people have been clamoring for for a while in the Breeders’ Cup is the Dirt Mile. That’s a division that has a lot of excellent runners within the United States, bred by Breeders’ Cup nominators, and there wasn’t really a perfect fit for those horses on championship day. Now what’s longer than the Sprint (six furlongs) and shorter than the Classic (a mile and a quarter)?”
Previously, the only mile-long Breeders’ Cup race was held on the turf. All three turf races were for older horses, but that will change this year with the addition of a grass race for 2-year-olds.
“The Juvenile Turf was a race that we think is going to be very successful in drawing international horses into the event, and it’s been very strongly received by the U.S. breeding industry,” Avioli said. “The Filly and Mare Sprint is for the horses that can’t get the (mile and an eighth) of the Distaff but are still excellent horses.”
The new races will reduce the possibility of dramatic story lines of the past – Arazi and Johannesburg coming across the pond for stunning wins in the Juvenile in their first attempts on a dirt surface, and speedy fillies Very Subtle, Safely Kept and Desert Stormer beating the boys in the Sprint. Avioli said he is aware of those concerns, but that the added races will create the opportunity for even more thrilling finishes.
“We think we’re going to have more than enough horses to fill both of these races,” Avioli said.
An added complication to the new trio of Breeders’ Cup races is the configuration of Monmouth’s dirt and turf courses, which will prevent two of the three new million-dollar races from being run at their “true” distances. The Dirt Mile will actually be “about” a mile and 70 yards because a mile start would be on the turn and could not handle what will probably be a large and unwieldy field.
The distaff sprint will be contested at six furlongs, not seven, because the track does not have a chute to accommodate the start for a seven-furlong event. The Filly and Mare Sprint will be set at seven furlongs in the future because breeders prefer the distance to the shorter six furlongs, Avioli said.
“That happens at a number of tracks. They’re all unique in their own way,” Avioli said. Adjusting distances is nothing new. In the past, the Distaff, Filly and Mare Turf, Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies have had their distances tweaked due to track layouts.
Despite the potential headaches that always come with attempting something new, Avioli said the Breeders’ Cup board was eager to move ahead with the changes as soon as possible.
“There is no time like the present, and no reason not to do this at Monmouth,” Avioli said. “We could have waited for a venue like a Churchill Downs where we’ve been many times, but we didn’t see that there was a great requirement to do that. We’re very confident that we’re going to be able to pull this off at Monmouth this year.”
Also, three $250,000 stakes will be run on Friday, with a possibility of those becoming part of the main card in the future. The undercard stakes will be for 3-year-old fillies on the dirt, juvenile sprinters and a grass race for juvenile fillies. Avioli said the three smaller stakes will serve as auditions for future expansion of the main Breeders’ Cup two-day card to 14 stakes with purses of $1 million or more, possibly as soon as next year. Wagers linking the two days of racing are expected to be created, although no details were available at press time.
“Being the first to do anything is kind of exciting,” said Robert Kulina, vice president and general manager of Monmouth Park. “We are also going to have good cards on Wednesday, with two stakes, and Thursday, with three stakes, to make it a four-day event. We want to expand this experience for all of New Jersey.”
Another innovation for this year’s Breeders’ Cup is the implementation of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series, nicknamed “Win and You’re In.” The series of stakes races – 24 were held at tracks from Saratoga to Santa Anita – guaranteed a stall in the starting gate for the corresponding divisional race for the winning horses (if Breeders’ Cup-eligible). One race on foreign soil, the Hong Kong Champions Mile, also was part of the challenge.
Holding actual Breeders’ Cup events overseas is not likely to occur in the near future. The time change would cost millions in lost revenue from American bettors, and most of the nominating fees that generate purse revenue for the races comes from U.S.-based breeders and owners, forcing them to lose their “home court advantage.”
“It’s possible, but there are a number of hurdles to overcome,” Avioli said. “If you go to England or France right now, you don’t have a racetrack that has both (turf and dirt) surfaces. Even if you did, you’d have a ‘Breakfast at Wimbledon’ formula for your television coverage, which might work, but it’s also going to seriously impact your U.S. wagering handle. All of those problems are exacerbated further if you take it into Asia or Dubai, where you’re dealing with a 12 or 14-hour time difference.”
However, Avioli said expanding the Breeders’ Cup Challenge from Hong Kong to England, France, Ireland, Australia and/or Dubai is likely to happen next year.
The additional races mean that horses, as well as people, will be flooding Monmouth, but Kulina said there will be ample room, even though one of the barns will have to be converted to a quarantine barn for the overseas ship-ins.
“We are going to open the Meadowlands stable area that hasn’t been used for a few years,” Kulina said. “We will be able to house between 250 and 300 horses there.”
Monmouth’s transformation is the most extensive since the track first opened its doors in 1946. The work began before the 2006 racing season with the installation of a new turf course. After the more than $30 million in renovations are completed, there’s hardly a nook or cranny from backstretch to clubhouse that hasn’t been touched.
Trees that lined part of the turn for home have been sacrificed to accommodate seating, and the traditional family atmosphere of the picnic area, open during the regular summer meet, has vanished beneath bleachers and corporate tents. The jockey colony also took a hit, since the unique swimming pool enjoyed by generations of riders was filled in and will be occupied by a group party area.
Because of the physical limitations, Avioli said that on-site attendance will be capped no higher than 50,000.
“We could sell 75,000 tickets (attendance at Churchill Downs last year was 75,132), but I don’t think the facility, set up as a fall venue, could comfortably hold that,” Avioli said.
For that reason, the record-setting handle of $135.4 million set at last year’s Breeders’ Cup in Louisville may be safe for another year. International attention, however, may boost the bottom line.
“One of the keys to the international ‘Win and You’re In’ concept is to provide an incentive to get horses abroad to come to the Breeders’ Cup,” Avioli said. “It’s not enough just to make an agreement like we did in Hong Kong, where you allow the Hong Kong players to bet on the Breeders’ Cup, but you need the Hong Kong horses to participate to maximize that wagering. People like to bet their hometown favorites.”
As in the past, simulcast wagering on the Breeders’ Cup will be available at the Meadowlands, Freehold, and the Atlantic City race courses. Two New Jersey off-track wagering facilities, Favorites, are located in Vineland and Woodbridge and will offer bettors another alternative to watching and wagering on the Breeders’ Cup.
When the world comes to Oceanport, what will it think of one of racing’s best-kept secrets?
“Monmouth has great history to it,” Avioli said. “It’s also in a part of the world that has a huge numbers of our top players in terms of owners and breeders and bettors. It could be an absolutely gorgeous fall weekend, and we’ve never had a Breeders’ Cup so close to the shore. It’s a different venue. It’s a very good venue for television. It’s a beautiful racetrack, and I think with the renovations, it’s going to look fantastic.”
“It’s going to be beautiful,” Kulina echoed. “We’re putting a new ribbon on the old gal.”
