Gural Issues Open Letter To Owners, Trainers

In an open letter to owners and trainers racing their stock in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Meadowlands Racetrack operator Jeff Gural has spoken openly about a number of key issues crucial to the 'Big M's survival.

Gural states that owners and trainers must support the entry box in order for the track's revitalization to continue. He also proposes a number of different scenarios to see all of the tracks survive. Gural also states that the sustainability issue could manifest itself in a tough stakes-races vs. overnight purses decision.

The contents of Gural's letter appear below.


Open Letter to all Owners and Trainers Racing in NY, NJ & PA


As you know, the first 29 days of the 2013 meet at the Meadowlands have been an overwhelming success. The public has adapted to the classification system, along with the competitive style of racing full fields, etc. as our handle is up approximately 33%. Last year we only had two days excluding the Hambletonian and Meadowlands Pace where the handle exceeded $3 million. This year we already exceeded $3 million on 13 occasions.

We are building a brand new grandstand as anyone who has visited the track can see. I assure you it will be a first class facility and a place that you will be proud to come to with your family or other guests.

That is the good news.

The bad news is that because all of our income is derived from wagering and horse racing we need to continue to generate handles of over $3 million every Friday and Saturday. In order to do that we require full fields and since we are only racing two days beginning next week essentially we need 250 horses each weekend to fill both cards. Last weekend we had 25 fewer horses racing over the weekend and as a result our handle declined by $508,000.

As we all know with Chester opening last week and Pocono opening in another week, in order for those two tracks to fill their cards they would probably need to have a minimum of an extra 1,000 horses assuming both tracks race four days a week as scheduled and 13 or 14 races per night which seems to be their plan.

Since both these tracks, as well as Yonkers, derive the majority of their purse money from casino gambling they often have purses equal or better than ours and most people think it is easier to win at those tracks as long as you do not draw too many eight or nine holes. I understand all that but the Meadowlands cannot survive without having full fields and competitive races. The last two months have shown that the product is extremely popular with the people who wager on standardbred racing. In fact, on a typical Saturday night 40% of all the money bet at US tracks is wagered on our product.

To be blunt, I need the industry to step up and support the Meadowlands which may not be the best business decision for everyone in the short term but, in my opinion, the industry needs a healthy Meadowlands and we deserve the support of the industry.

The other option would be for us to drastically reduce the stakes program which I think would help increase our overnight purses but would have a very negative impact on the industry because our stakes program is vital to support the breeding industry. It also serves to attract new customers by showcasing our best horses and creating the kind of excitement we see for our major races. This will be especially true when we move into the new building. Currently we use 25% of our purse money to fund the stakes program approximately $4,200,000 while our competitors are typically using 10-12%.

To be honest, I am not sure there are enough horses for all of the race days that are scheduled at Chester, Pocono, Yonkers, Dover and the Meadowlands. It would seem at some point it should be addressed as the number of mares bred and yearlings born each year continues to decline significantly. Common sense would tell you that this has to have an impact and that race days have to start to come down. The bottom line is we cannot survive without full fields as we get killed when we have six or seven horse races no matter what the quality is. We struggled to fill the card with short fields the last two weekends and Pocono is not open yet.

One possibility would be to work with Pocono and Chester and try to come up with a schedule that would allow all of us to have full fields and quality racing. One suggestion was to lower the purses in December, January and February when there is an oversupply of horses and increase the purses when the Pennsylvania tracks reopen. Another option that we might consider is a loyalty program whereby we create a formula that allows preference to those horsemen who support us in the spring and summer when we are racing the fall and winter meet.

I would rather see the industry support us on a voluntary basis as I think it is in everyone’s best interest that we continue to provide the type of product we have been providing for the last two and a half months. Hopefully I can count on your support.

Jeff Gural


Comments

Mr Yamakva, you have a very good point, however, any time suggestions have been made, either the horsemen or the tracks don't want to hear it. Our sons and their friends, now in their mid-30's would come to the track with us 10 years ago.We were trying to get them interested in, at the very least, becoming regulars and bringing their friends and families, and maybe down the road entertain horse ownership. We found that we could not keep them interested for more than 6 races, or in coming out more than twice a year. Their common complaints follow.

1) Too much blank time between races with nothing else to fill the blanks.

2) Programs were difficult to follow if you didn't know what was going on to start with.

3) No interaction possibilities with the horses or participants.

4) Some tracks were too disgusting, and many general areas of some tracks just not enticing. Certainly not where you want to take your family on a weekend outing.

5) Unless you were in the dining room, food and beverages were over-priced and lacking in quality.

6) For the gamblers in the crowd who also played table games and on-line poker, the rake was too big.

Every one of these "kids" had university educations and good jobs with a good chunk of discretionary money and could have been active participants, but their needs weren't met.

Most of those issues were track governed, not horsemen governed. These issues still remain.

Some of the blame also lies directly with the ORC for not enforcing the guidelines. Windsor, for example, should have lost their slots until such time as they cleaned up their act.

In reply to by bobbi

Mr or Ms Morley...

The problem is, you have about 5 different "voices" and you have little to no unity among horseman. Look how many showed up to a rally at Kawartha..... 75 people showing up to protect jobs of about a few thousand affected by the closure?

Of course no one is going to listen, because as a group, horseman are barely vocal when it comes to anything except wanting the slots money back.

I have always said simulcasting has killed the live experience. Casual fans do not care to go to the track to watch TV. So while it gets more money bet at the track with the die-hards, it does zero (or actually hurts) to the casual fan experience.

Average horse race being 2 minutes, means a 15 race card, has 10 race card having 30 minutes of action, but usually takes over 3 + hours to complete. Like it or not horseman, that is not what the non-racing fan gets enthused about. How many times has it said, "zero to post", and there is not even a horse on the track? Draining every last wagering dollar, is nice, but it bores the hell out of those that bet 8-10 minutes to post.

Even hockey and baseball got the hint that fans do not want to sit for more than 2.5 hours and have altered the way things are done so the fan is done and gone home at or about that time. Bet Night live on Mondays, never got halfway thru the card many times, and any hockey game or baseball game that started at the same time, is almost done.

One body, track owners, horseman, racing fans, politicians and what not, needs to take the lead and get together and get the experience to be exciting enough to bring back and maintain the interest of new blood.

number 2 is the biggest thing.... and soooooooooooooooooo many people can help out with this. Owners in the stands, the track, the drivers, everything. In today's gambling world, horse racing is among the most confusing.

Mr Gural MUST bring claiming races back to remain competitive with the "other" tracks he talks about instead of dictating to everyone what HE thinks is best for everyone, talk with the horsemen to see what they like, ABC classifications aren't for everyone.

In reply to by Harnessbuff

Mr Hobin....

with all due respect, listening to the horseman, is why some Ontario tracks are ghost towns. He is listening to the most important people...... the fans. Without them, there is no horseman.

If you soon do not adopt that mentality, you will never see racing here in Ontario past the end of the year. The fans are better receiving his close finishes, and exciting racing, you have well......

Jeff Gural-the smartest card in the deck! Gural is light years ahead of the rest in NA. Given support by the industry, The Meadowlands will have a great future.

The industry at large has much to learn from Gural, Swedish harness racing, and PEI harness racing strategies.

Good luck Jeff!

Larry Resnitzky

With the liberals dismantling racing in Ontario, perhaps many of our horses will find a home near a U.S. track.

I am tired. Not just from foal watch. How in the name of all that is holy,does Jeff Gural have to plead with horseman to support The Meadowlands? The Meadowlands is key to the survival of the sport in North America. I am tired of whining horsemen that blame everyone but themselves for the sport declining.Adapt or die, as they say. Canadian horseman, take this the right way, as I touted Ontario in New York for over a decade and put my insignificant money where my mouth was when Armstrong Bros ruled the breeding industry and still do.Did no one see that purses were higher than handles? Did no one see what a free ride the industry had in Ontario without making any plans to make sure the golden goose wasn't butchered?The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance. Your government is crazy corrupt...capice? Bingo is graft personified....just like OTB was in NYC....now OTB is gone.Is there not any group of horsemen out there that can see the need to fight for their share of the gambling dollar with other than 20th century weapons? North American racing product tweaked and updated for the global desire for product on the internet, for example, has unlimited possibilities. I hate to cite just U.S. citizens only, as I am just a first genaration American with as much a connection to the US as to Quebec and Ireland, but go to Deovolentefarms.com. Read Mr Gulotta's take on the possibilities for expansion of the industry to China.Far fetched? If you dismiss this kind of thinking , fine, but if the industry doesn't fight with intelligence...if you don't wake up every day and think "what can I do to fix this", no one will care about us...and why should they? It is no coincidence that Mr. Gulatta is a partner of Jeff Gural in saving the Meadowlands. Look south for encouragement and ideas. You guys are mostly rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Respectfully submitted. Jim

In reply to by salt hill

Of course we could see that the purse payout was more than the handle in many instances. In fact those with lower classed horses used to get angry that classes were written week after week for the higher classed horses (preferred and open) and would often race with 5 or 6 horses and of course, theses classes also got the higher purses. Nothing horsemen could do but complain. Race secretaries usually just ignored us. We also never had a track owner write the kind of letter Mr. Gural wrote. In trying to co-ordinate race days, etc. with the other tracks is great. He need not worry. By the time our gov't is finished dismantling Ontario racing the Meadowlands et al will probably have plenty of horses.

In reply to by salt hill

Mr Freely, you have hit the nail on the head.

The thinking here is that the sport will thrive if people fill slot parlours. That is so backwards it hurts. Mr Gural wants racing fans, betting on his product. Heck he had the rules altered to better suit the fans. The results are great. In Ontario, it appears the horseman are cheering for a return of people to slots. Mr Gural is going to save racing in that area.....

.... the horseman here, do not appear interested in having fans as 90% of the comments want slots or are insulting politicians. If that same 90% spent the time making posts wth an idea tossed out how to improve the experience....

Do not worry Mr Gural , beginning April 1st many Ontario horseman will be fleeing to the United States to race their good horses. Some have already left. You probably will have more than you need. sincerely Bruce T. Winning

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