Dennis Drazin

Book'em Danno (Bucchero), the best horse the New Jersey breeding program has produced in decades, will return to the Garden State and make his next start in the July 17 Mr. Prospector Stakes at Monmouth Park. The race will be run the day before the GI Haskell Stakes and the purse will be increased from $100,000 to $200,000. It will be Book'em Danno's first start in New Jersey since he won the July 19, 2024 Jersey Shore Stakes at Monmouth, "This has been in the works for a long time,"...

Monmouth Park and the connections of last year's champion male sprinter, Book'em Danno (Bucchero), are negotiating to get the five-year-old New Jersey-bred gelding to race at Monmouth on Friday, July 17, which is the day before the track's premier event, the GI Haskell Stakes. Dennis Drazin, the chairman and chief executive officer of Darby Development LLC, which operates Monmouth, disclosed the plans during Wednesday's New Jersey Racing Commission meeting. Drazin explained that the initiative would involve a special day in Book'em Danno's honor, with the aim of promoting the overall...

A proposal floated by the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association of New Jersey (TBA) that would have significantly cut the cash awards the organization pays to the state's horse breeders and owners failed to gain approval at Wednesday's New Jersey Racing Commission (NJRC) meeting. The measure, which was accompanied by the disclosure that the TBA has been unable to pay out $200,000 that is still due to breeders and owners who earned incentives at the 2025 Monmouth Park meet, got tabled until the July NJRC meeting by a 3-0 vote. The money...

These are uncertain times for Monmouth Park. The foal crop is down, their horse population is way down, and they're having trouble filling fields. That's what happens when you are one of many players in an overloaded Mid-Atlantic region and you are the only track that does not get revenue from casinos. (Monmouth does get a $10 million subsidy from the state to prop up purses, but that could be reduced to $2.5 million in 2027). Yet, better news may be around the corner. Bills have been introduced to have...

When Monmouth Park opens its doors for the 2026 season on Saturday, the issues it faces will already be obvious. Only eight races were carded with 63 horses entered. With only 500 to 600 horses on the grounds, the Elkwood section of the backstretch has temporarily been closed. The Long Branch Stakes did not fill, but the racing office salvaged the race and it will be run Sunday with a field of six. Those are just some of the issues facing the picturesque Jersey Shore track as it prepares to...

At a press conference and luncheaon held at Monmouth Park Tuesday afternoon, the highlights for the 2026 season were rolled out in advance of opening day on Saturday, May 9. The event was hosted by TDN's Christina Bossinakis. Heading the 50-day meet is the $1-million GI NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes, which was won last year by Journalism (Curlin), also the winner of the GI Preakness Stakes. The 45th running of Pegasus Stakes, for 3-year-olds at a mile and a sixteenth, is the track's prep race for the nine-furlong Haskell. The top...

New Jersey racing has not had it easy, and has not had it easy for a long time. Monmouth was in such dire straits that, after the end of the 2025 meet, there was so little money in its coffers that the track wasn't able to pay horsemen money that was owed to them for months. That problem arose despite the fact Monmouth was receiving an annual $10-million subsidy from the state to supplement purses. Worried that the subsidy, never a sure thing, might go away under the newly elected...

So-called prediction markets have become all the rage across a wide swath of topics, from election results to gas prices to the amount of snowfall might occur in a given place. The Kentucky Derby and horse racing at large? That topic was the subject of a panel entitled 'Prediction Markets and Wagering: An Emerging Threat To Horse Racing and Interstate Horseracing Act Revenue' during Thursday's session of the National HBPA Conference at Oaklawn Park. Speakers agreed that prediction markets have the ability to dwarf even sports betting in America. The...

The Thoroughbred Breeders' Association of New Jersey (TBANJ) has announced that it has reached an agreement with Darby Development, the management company that oversees operations at Monmouth Park, that should end what had been a stalemate concerning future racing dates at the seaside track. In a statement released Wednesday, the TBANJ said it was supporting "an amended bill that protects Thoroughbred racing and breeding in New Jersey." With the possibility that a $10-million subsidy that had been used to enhance purses at Monmouth Park might not be available in the...

The saga that is the future of Monmouth Park took another twist Thursday. According to an e-mail sent to its members by the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association of New Jersey, the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee has chosen not to vote on Senate Bill 5028 . Senate Bill 5028 would allow Monmouth Park, if it chose to do so, to run an annual meet of just 25 days. The State Assembly's committee also did not take a vote on a similarly worded bill. In 2026, there will be 50 days of...

The already struggling racing and breeding industries in New Jersey were hit by potentially devastating news on Wednesday when it was reported that there are bills afloat in the state capital in Trenton that could eventually allow Monmouth Park to reduce its meet to 25 days a year. Is this the beginning of the end for one of the sport's most iconic and picturesque tracks? Not necessarily. (I'll get to that later). But it's hard not to be pessimistic about Monmouth's future. As with so many things that have become...

A vote scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 8 in New Jersey's Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee appears to threaten Thoroughbred racing dates in the state, cutting the required number from 50 to 25. The story was first reported by DRF's Matt Hegarty. Michael Campbell, the executive director for the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association of New Jersey, sent out a letter to Association members Tuesday warning breeders of "serious threat" to the New Jersey Thoroughbred breeding industry if the bill is passed. "This drastic reduction would effectively eliminate the foundation necessary to sustain...