The condition sheet is out, and everybody who cares about racing at the Meadowlands Racetrack – be it management, employees, horsepeople or bettors – has an awful lot to be excited about.

Beginning Friday, March 1, purses at the ‘Big M’ – thanks to the recent purse subsidy legislation signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy – will get a $40,000 per-card boost. Purses will get another $40,000 jolt on March 29. After a Saturday (Feb. 16) night program that saw a 2019-best $3,166,920 in all-source wagering, there is reason for great optimism at the East Rutherford, New Jersey mile oval.

In recent years, the Big M has experienced a lull in interest from horsepeople once the Pennsylvania tracks opened in March, but the playing field has now been levelled with a swipe of Gov. Murphy’s pen.

“As far as competing with area tracks for horses,” said Meadowlands Racetrack Director of Racing Pete Koch, “it certainly puts us back in the ballgame. We paid attention to the non-winners of two, three and four classes, and we’ve written some races for higher-priced claimers.”

On February 9, Castle Flight was claimed by Dylan Davis for $50,000, and he came back one week later to finish second to K Ryan Bluechip in the $21,000 Preferred Handicap for pacers, a race that five weeks from now will offer a $30,000 purse.

“With the drop off in purses in recent years,” said Koch, “the higher-priced claimers have evaporated. With additional funds, we are hoping to bring them back. The $50,000 claim on Castle Flight was probably our highest in six or seven years.”

“Carding more straight claimers,” said trainer Bob Lounsbury, “it’s very interesting to me and a lot of my owners. A lot of my owners just want claiming horses. If we get beat, fine. But then we want the chance to take the winner. Combining claimers with conditioned horses is tough because the conditioned horses have an advantage.

“I have some guys right now who want to claim a $30,000 or $40,000 horse (a class that is offered on next week’s condition sheet). As a matter of fact, I had a couple of owners claim some horses last week. Both said the same thing: ‘If there are going to be bigger purses, then we have to claim something.’ It might take a couple of weeks to get going, but it should work, and me and my people are going to support the Meadowlands.”

It will take not only support from horsepeople but fan participation as well to make this thing work. “With the increased purses, we are encouraging horsemen to race with us,” said track COO/GM Jason Settlemoir, “because for the supplement to continue into the future, we need to show some handle gains to fulfill some of the parameters of the subsidy. As last weekend proved, bigger fields mean bigger handle, and we have a positive outlook moving forward.”

Not surprisingly, last Saturday’s 50-Cent Pick-5 and 50-Cent Pick-4 saw their biggest pools of the year. The Pick-5 saw $79,108 in play while the Pick-4 took $115,218 in action. The month of February has seen a betting bonanza at the industry’s handle leader, as all-source total wagering has averaged $2.92 million per program.

Other single-pool highlights from Saturday’s card:

· $80,873 Exacta (Race 5)
· $60,966 Trifecta (Race 7)
· $52,199 Win (Race 7)
· $46,974 Superfecta (Race 3)

Fans of the 20-Cent Jackpot Super High-Five have a $50,930 carryover to shoot for in Race 5 on Friday’s card, when racing resumes at 7:15 p.m. Free program pages for the Pick-4 are available at playmeadowlands.com and ustrotting.com.

LINEUP CHANGES: Look for some new faces on the small screen as some usual members of the Meadowlands’ TV team – Dave Brower, Dave Little and Bob ‘Hollywood’ Heyden – will be in Florida at the Dan Patch Awards dinner.

On Friday (Feb. 22), Harrah’s Philadelphia track announcer and one-half of the podcast team of ‘Post Time with Mike and Mike,’ Mike Bozich, will serve as co-host of the live ‘Racing from the Meadowlands’ simulcast show. Rich Mattei, the assistant racing secretary at Freehold Raceway, will bring his big-time handicapping skills to TVG’s live coast-to-coast presentation of the Meadowlands’ races.

Saturday (Feb. 23) will find Bozich in the announcer’s booth calling the races as Ken Warkentin will serve as host of the show. Occasional fill-in Pete Kleinhans will take another turn as co-host, while the newest member of the Big M’s TV team, Jessica Otten, will make her TVG debut.

(With files from the Meadowlands Racetrack)