Monmouth Park

Due to heavy rain and high winds that have been affecting the Jersey Shore region all day Saturday, officials at Monmouth Park were forced to cancel the track's season-opening program that was scheduled to get underway at 2 p.m. ET. The track was to remain open for full-card simulcasting, including Saturday's Kentucky Derby card from Churchill Downs. Racing is scheduled to resume on Mother's Day Sunday, May 8, with nine live races beginning at 12:15 p.m. ET. The main event is the $100,000 Serena's Song S. for older fillies and...

Monmouth Park announced last week that it will begin to offer fixed odds wagering starting May 7, opening day of the meet. That was the good news. The bad news was that fixed odds betting will begin with a cautious rollout and without the major players in the sport on board. Starting Saturday, bettors on-track at Monmouth will have the choice of making traditional pari-mutuel bets or placing fixed odds wagers. Two areas of the track will be designated for fixed odds and the bets can only be made through...

Monmouth Park opens its 2022 meet May 7 with new wagering and dining options. The New Jersey oval will offer fixed odds wagering, allowing bettors to retain the odds at the time of their bet as opposed to tote wagering. "We are excited to finally be able to offer this new wagering opportunity to our fans," said Dennis Drazin, CEO and Chairman of Darby Development, operators of Monmouth Park. "We believe this is just the start of what will be an extremely popular wager. For the first time, bettors can...

Millie Fleming, president of the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association of New Jersey, has been named the 2022 recipient of the Virgil "Buddy" Raines Distinguished Achievement Award, Monmouth Park announced Thursday. The Raines Award is presented annually just prior to Monmouth Park's season opener, which is coming up May 7. "This means the world to me. I know the elite company I'm in," said Fleming. "I'm the first breeder to receive this award so it truly is special to me." Fleming is still active as an owner and breeder. She also taught...

With the New Jersey Racing Commission (NJRC) last week voting to rescind the whip ban, which had been in place at Monmouth Park since the 2021 season, the Jockeys' Guild Board of Directors has voted to reinstate benefits to its members who choose to ride at Monmouth in 2022. The Guild had not been covering insurance policies for Monmouth riders since July 1. New Jersey was the only state in the country where whipping was banned. The NJRC had adopted Monmouth's request for a "House Rule," allowing riders to utilize...

Monmouth Park jockeys will once again be allowed to use their whips to encourage their mounts when the meet kicks off May 7. The change was made during a special hearing held Friday by the New Jersey Racing Commission, which voted to rescind rules that were put in place prior to the 2021 Monmouth meeting that allowed whipping only in cases where it was needed for safety reasons. New Jersey was the only state in the country where whipping was banned. Monmouth's whipping rules were set to change July 1,...

With new regulations regarding whipping set to go into effect throughout the country on July 1 when the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) takes effect, management at Monmouth Park has asked the New Jersey Racing Commission to adopt the more lenient HISA rules when the meet opens May 7. The story was first reported by the Asbury Park Press. At the start of the 2021 meet controversial rules were put in place by the New Jersey Racing Commission that banned the practice of whipping horses to encourage them...

Monmouth Park has added two live racing dates on Sundays in September to extend the 2022 meet to 62 days following approval from the New Jersey Racing Commission. Sept. 11 and Sept. 18 - the new closing day -- are the added live dates, with stakes races highlighting both cards. The $85,000 Pinot Grigio S. will headline the Sept. 11 card, with the $85,000 Joey P. S. set for Sept. 18. Both are for New Jersey-breds at five furlongs on the turf. Monmouth Park's 77th season gets underway on Saturday,...

Embattled trainer Wayne Potts was hit with a 45-day suspension Sunday by the New York Gaming Commission, which charged that a drug found in his tackroom was not approved by the FDA for use in Thoroughbred horses. The suspension is set to begin Apr. 10. Potts has waived his right to an appeal. The drug was found Feb. 17. The New York regulators decided to divide up Potts's 45 day-suspension so that it correlates with still another suspension he is facing, one from the New Jersey Racing Commission. In January,...

The New Jersey Racing Commission voted 6-0 Wednesday not to act as a middleman on behalf of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) by collecting fees from state licensees that will eventually fund the yet-to-get started authority's drug-testing and safety initiatives. The decision was hardly a surprise, and it yielded zero public discussion among commissioners prior to the perfunctory vote. It had seemed unlikely that the NJRC would be the first regulator in the nation to willingly craft a complex set of rules and set up a payment-collecting process...

For Reynaldo Nobles, it was nice to have something to do. His jobs over the last few years included working as a security guard at Palm Meadows and as school crossing guard. But even as he got into his early eighties, he never gave up on the idea of training horses again. His dream became a reality last month at Tampa Bay Downs. Now 84 and more than eight years after he had run his last horse, Nobles was back in the entries and back in the winner's circle. The...

Led by the $1-million TVG.com GI Haskell S., Monmouth Park is set to offer $8.135 million in stakes races when the track kicks off its 77th season Saturday, May 7. This year's race meet, which runs through Sept. 17, will feature 50 total stakes, 10 graded events, and nine stakes restricted to New Jersey-bred horses. Several stakes will see purse boosts in 2022, including the GI United Nations, which goes from $500,000 to $600,000 and is now double its purse from just two years ago; the GIII Monmouth Cup going...