$1 Million Reasons to Wager on Monmouth Park

The Monmouth Park summer meeting kicks off on Saturday afternoon on the Jersey Shore, with 13 races and 148 horses entered on the opening day card.

Everyone in the industry will watch this meeting closely, as the track plans on handing out an average of $1 million in purses a day while cutting the racing back from five days a week last year to a Friday through Sunday schedule this year, with the exception of racing held on three holiday Mondays.

The purse structure is a dramatic increase from the $331,000 average last year, and has attracted many of the top horses, trainers, and jockeys from around the nation.

If the meeting is a success, we may see other tracks starts to cut back on racing days, focusing on quality and not quantity.

One of the biggest gripes among horseplayers is the short fields some tracks offer. Friday’s Churchill Downs card featured six races with fields of six or seven runners.

The opening day at Monmouth Park will have an average of more than 10 runners per race. That will spruce up the payoffs and get what the track wants, a dramatic increase in betting handle.

There will be an infusion of trainers from Southern California, including Michael Machowsky, Mike Mitchell, Peter Miller, and Bob Hess.

Trainers based in New York and Delaware Park figure to ship more horses to the Jersey Shore and have asked for more stalls on the grounds, among them Todd Pletcher, Nick Zito, Kiaran McLaughlin, and Linda Rice.

Expect to see a presence from Maryland based trainers, including Dickie Small, Mike Trombetta, Ferris Allen, Dale Capuano, and Larry Murray.

The jockey colony will include Garrett Gomez and John Velasquez this year.

Among the busiest jockeys on opening day will be Gomez with 12 mounts and Elvis Trujillo, who will ride all 13 races on the card.

Trujillo led the jockey standings last year with 129 wins, 16 more than runner up Eddie Castro.

Bruce Levine was the leading trainer last year with 46 wins, followed by Scott Volk (31), Jason Servis (26), Joe Orseno (23), and Jane Cibelli (23).

The marquee event of the meeting is the $1 million Haskell Invitational (G1), which will be televised live by ABC.

The race is for three year olds and the connections of Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver and Preakness winner Lookin At Lucky both have the race on their radar.

With large fields and quality horses, Monmouth Park figures to garner plenty of attention among horseplayers.

There are two stakes races on the opening day card.

The $100,000 Decathlon drew a field of seven runners who will go six furlongs on the main track.

The Todd Pletcher trained Go Go Shoot is the 2/1 morning line favorite in the race. The five year old gelding is a multiple stakes winner and two time winner over the main track at Monmouth Park.

Mr. Fantasy, who was sent to the sidelines after winning the Withers (G3) last April at Aqueduct is a speedy colt who is making his third start since returning off the layoff and looks like he is primed for a good effort.

Congressional Page is coming off a solid runner up finish in the Commonwealth (G2) at Keeneland over the polytrack surface. The gelding is perfect in two trips over the Monmouth Park main track.

Tommy’s Memory has done little wrong in his five starts, picking up four wins. The Anthony Ryan trainee beat Florida breds in the Sprint Stakes in his last start at Tampa Bay Downs.

The feature on opening day is the $100,000 Elkwood for three year olds and upward at 1 1/6 miles on the turf course.

The Tom Bush trained Get Stormy comes into the race riding a four race win streak, last out taking the Commonwealth Turf (G3) at Churchill Downs last November.

Pletcher will saddle Pleasant Strike, who has landed in the money in eight straight starts, but over those races only hit the winners circle once, winning the Virginia bred Van Clief at Colonial Downs last June.

Kiss the Kid returns to turf after a good runner up0 finish in his last outing in the Ben Ali (G3) at Keeneland on polytrack. The seven year old is a five time turf winner.

Trainer Christophe Clement sends out Staying On for just his second start since arriving in the U.S. The five year old gelding came off a five month layoff to finish third against optional claimers back in January at Gulfstream Park, and has not started since.

The barn is solid with horses coming back off layoffs, and the gelding ran competitively overseas in Group 3 company.

Monmouth Park is offering a .50 cent Pick 5 along with .10 cent superfectas, and $1 Pick 3 and Pick 4 wagering.

With all 1,600 stalls on the grounds full along with the close proximity of tracks in New York, Maryland, Philadelphia, West Virginia, and Delaware, there figures to be plenty of horses to go around looking to grab their share of the $50 million in purses that will be handed out over the next 50 days.

That can only be good news for horseplayers, who figure to get a steady diet of outstanding wagering opportunities throughout the spring and summer.