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These are the best of times for the horse racing industry in New Jersey.
And the worst.
The best, that annual early August exacta of the Hambletonian at The Meadowlands and the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth, provides a weekend escape from reality for the harness and thoroughbred businesses.
This is Christmas come early. On Saturday at The Meadowlands and Sunday at Monmouth there will be large crowds that translate into increased betting volume. Dollar signs are dancing in the heads of every horse executive worthy of a balance sheet with a lot more blue than red.
If only the rest of the year were like this.
But after the million-dollar-plus races, after the casual fans have walked away, after the television networks have packed up, the industry must again face the reality of shorter lines at the betting windows and the lack of a game plan to revive a sport that's been on the decline for years.
There's the rub. The industry thinks it has the solution: slot machines. Now it has to convince the Atlantic City casino interests and the state politicians. Time is not on the side of the industry.
With New York and Pennsylvania installing slots at their tracks for operation in 2007, this race is already in the homestretch and New Jersey is lagging behind.
"My opinion always has been that if Yonkers and Aqueduct have VLTs [video lottery terminals that resemble slot machines] and New Jersey doesn't, we might just as well go out and put 'for sale' signs on every horse farm in New Jersey," said state Senate president Richard Codey, D-Essex. The former acting governor has been cited by the horsemen in the past for his sponsorship of legislation favorable to them.
The quandary, insists the industry, is that when New York and Pennsylvania utilize the monies generated by slot machines to increase their purses, there will be a mass exodus by the owners, trainers and jockeys who operate in this state.
As Leon Zimmerman, a lobbyist for the New Jersey Standardbred Association, which represents nearly everybody who works in harness racing, says, "Horse owners follow the money."
Money, of course, is at the crux of this standoff. The horsemen are adamant that without slots, or an increase in the four-year $83 million state-pressured contributions from the casino industry that expire at the end of 2007, more than 80,000 acres of horse-related farmland and more than 6,200 jobs in its industry will be lost.
What irritates the horsemen, say several, is that several Jersey casino corporations own the slot machines that are being installed in New York and Pennsylvania, and Harrah's is building a harness track in Chester, Pa., that will be in competition for horses with the The Meadowlands.
On the flip side, casino lobbies must protect their 50,000 workers in Atlantic City and insist that slot players have no interest in horse racing and that VLTs would generate more revenue than the horsemen need.
Southern New Jersey legislators are opposed to any VLT bill in Trenton or any referendum that would seek a constitutional amendment to allow the machines outside Atlantic City.
"We have to deal with this," said George Zoffinger, president and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which operates The Meadowlands and Monmouth. "We can't put our heads in the sand."
Zoffinger suggests a partnership with the casinos, allowing the Atlantic City interests to compensate for revenue losses created by the new competition.
"I understand that we have to protect that franchise," he said. "Let the casinos share in it. We did a study that The Meadowlands could support 16,000 slots and all we want to do is put in 5,000. That would bring in $300 million annually. Can they pass that up?"
There are a lot of players in this high-priced drama. Or the "ripple effect," as Zimmerman describes it.
Beyond the big players there are breeders, farm owners and spinoff businesses, such as fencing and blacksmiths and a large veterinary industry.
The farms produce 26 percent of the thoroughbred starters at Monmouth and The Meadowlands and a higher percentage of standardbred starters.
In 1987 there were 13,200 horses in New Jersey and 120,000 acres of land for their use, according to a census conducted by the Department of Agriculture. Ten years later, in the next equine census, there were 4,000 horses and 81,000 acres.
"People might find this hard to believe," Zimmerman said, "but this is a $1 billion business in New Jersey. There are a lot of people with a lot at stake. If the horses don't run in New Jersey, then the farms will be gone."
The industry isn't doomed yet. The Meadowlands is still considered the No. 1 venue in harness racing, with its simulcast signal picked up in every other state and Canada. New Jersey ranks fourth on the list of states that generate the most horse revenues (behind New York, California and Illinois) with $17 billion yearly.
"That's not chump change," a Meadowlands official said.
But it takes a lot more work than it used to. There are no more crowds of 70,000, the turnout when The Meadowlands opened in 1976, or the 35,000 to 40,000 Codey remembers on a Saturday afternoon at Monmouth during his teenage years.
Instead of four-hour cards, the tracks preside over 12-hour-plus betting-thons, with simulcasting signals coming in from as far as Australia.
"Our handle figures are down, attendance is not good, but we're better off than others," said Dennis Dowd, senior vice president of racing for the Sports Authority. "The real question is where do we go from here?"
Slots, say the horsemen, will regenerate New Jersey racing. For example, Delaware Park was on the verge of closing until it added slots in 1995.
Thanks to the added revenues, the purse of the Delaware Oaks, a Grade II stakes race, has increased from $51,500 to $500,000 in the last 10 years and the Delaware Handicap, the track's signature race, has gone up from $158,450 to $1 million.
"The [New Jersey] horse industry was slow to react, now they have to catch up," Codey said. "The Meadowlands was a cash cow, but they didn't put the money back into the cow. They [the state] used it for other things."
Money will be used to prepare Monmouth to host the 2007 Breeders' Cup and Codey thinks consideration should be given to sprucing up The Meadowlands.
"It needs an extreme makeover," he said. "The place is passe. You walk in and you don't get that cheery, welcome-like feeling. It's old, it's tired and it's worn out. You need $20 million to redo the place."
What the horse industry wants is slot machines. Whether it gets them is debatable. During the recent state budget crisis, in which the tracks were ordered closed, southern New Jersey legislators urged Gov. Corzine to maintain his opposition to VLTs.
"A decision to place VLTs or slot machines outside of Atlantic City could be devastating to the progress we are achieving in Atlantic City and could have a seismic impact on the entire New Jersey economy," wrote Assemblyman Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic and a former Atlantic City mayor, and Sen. Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, in a letter to the governor.
But Corzine, while vowing to do all he can for Atlantic City, said in an interview with WOND (an Atlantic City radio station) that VLTs should be considered as an option as Pennsylvania and New York install gaming machines.
"They're going to be surrounding this state within the next 18 months," Corzine said.
The stretch run has begun.
"It seems like nothing happens in this state until there is a crisis," Zoffinger said. "This one is close to a crisis."
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