Horse Racing in NJ

I admit it, I am not much of a Blogger, LOL. I have a friend, I'll call him "Adam," and quite frankly it baffles me how he is able to articulate such prose on an almost daily basis, while I can barely put a thought together one month at a time. That said, the following was recently submitted to the Asbury Park Press as a letter to the editor or commentary. They are much better than the Star-Ledger at printing letters, so let's see what happens. So, here it is:

           "The state of racing in New Jersey is currently in serious flux. Hopefully in the coming weeks differences will be resolved and solutions will be reached so that the “Sport of Kings,” will not only survive, but thrive in our state. If common sense is not used and calmer heads do not prevail, I fear it will be the end of an era in the Garden State.

            There are some whose reaction to such dire predictions can be summed up in two words, “who cares?” The fact is everybody in this state should be concerned over this situation. The bottom line is that horse racing is responsible for over 170,000 acres of open space and more importantly, is the impetus behind injecting billions of dollars into the state’s economy.

            Opponents to horse racing like to point out that Monmouth Park lost over $6 million in 2010, but they fail to mention that the Woodbridge OTW (1 of 3 OTW's in NJ) made over $5 million last year and is the number one OTW in the nation for highest volume of wagers. They also fail to note that horse racing is relied upon for over $100 million in state and local tax revenue and generates over $1.1 billion per year for the state’s economy.

            A legislator once said that he highly doubted that if racing died that the acres of open space from horse racing would be at risk, that he could not believe that the breeders would pick up and move to another state. I cannot speak for every breeder and horseman/woman, but I can outline what would be at risk from my own standpoint.

            My family owns Tee-N-Jay Farm in Monroe Township. Our farm is 125 acres in size and generally we average between a 12-25 horses on our property throughout a given year, which makes us mid-ranged in size and activity for most horse farms in New Jersey.  In 2010, we spent over $535,000 on goods, services and labor in New Jersey.

            If racing and breeding are not supported, I can, without hesitation, declare that we will close up shop and look to sell our property to a developer. But how do we define “support?” At the moment there is a $30 million supplement earmarked for racing for 2011-2013. I would implore the governor to not veto the usage of this money for racing. And while it will fall on deaf ears, it would be prudent to install slot machines at the racetracks and to make every effort to overturn the federal ban on sports wagering and bring it to New Jersey.

            Personally, I do feel that racing needs to stand on its own and on a national level needs to do a much better job of growing interest in our industry. I would rather that we not have to depend on an outside economic source, such at slot machines or video lottery terminals, but the fact remains that our neighboring states of PA, NY and DE, all have them and in order for racing to compete with them, the playing field needs to be leveled. At this time, the state is not heading in that direction, but you can mark my words, 10 years from now, the residents of this state, the racing industry and yes, even the casinos in Atlantic City will be ruing the day that it didn’t take this pivotal step.

            The next time you drive past a farm with horses grazing in its pasture, don’t take it for granted…it may not be there much longer."

I have a great number of ideas on how racing can make itself more attractive to the betting public and some other thoughts on racing in NJ, but alas, I don't want to put any of you into a coma, so stay tuned, in a month or two, or six, I'll be sure to write them down in my next BLOG.

TS