New Jersey

Led by the $1 million GI NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes, Monmouth Park is set to offer $5.85 million in stakes races when the track kicks off its 81st season Saturday, May 9. This year's 50-day race meet, which runs through Sunday, Sept. 13, will feature 36 total stakes races, including nine graded events. In addition to the Haskell, the July 18 card will also host the $500,000 GII Molly Pitcher Stakes; $500,000 GII United Nations; $350,000 GIII Monmouth Cup; $300,000 GIII WinStar Matchmaker; and $100,000 Wolf Hill. In preparation for...

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...

In the paddock for the GI Forego Stakes, nearly every other horse was flanked by handlers. A few pranced or eyed the crowd warily, as their teams worked to keep them focused on the task at hand. Meanwhile Book'em Danno (Bucchero) ambled placidly in front of the saddling stalls. His lone handler gave him an occasional pat, but otherwise the pair seemed impervious to the commotion around them. That steady demeanor has been one of Book'em Danno's trademarks, and it's one of the reasons why bringing the multiple Grade I...

Jay Briscione, one of the six owners that make up Atlantic Six Racing, knows how lucky he has been. Some two years ago he and his partners privately bought a Jersey-bred son of Bucchero (Kantharos) out of a mare named Adorabella (Ghostzapper). At the time, Bucchero was an unproven sire and Adorabella never made it to the races. Briscione admits all he was looking for was a horse who could win New Jersey-bred races at Monmouth. What he got was a winning lottery ticket named Book'em Danno. It's been quite...

Oceanport, NJ--Only a few years removed from what seemed like a death-knell for the New Jersey Thoroughbred industry, Monmout Park enthusiastically ushered in its 80th racing season with a full house during the Oceanport oval's press conference held in Turf Club dining room. Hosted by the TDN's Christina Bossinakis, the event was attended by a solid contingent of elected officials as well as local horsemen and women. Also included among the event's highlights, Monmouth General Manager John Heims, a long-time Monmouth executive, was honored with the 2025 Virgil 'Buddy' Raines...

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has signed legislation that will extend the $20 million annual purse enhancement for horse racing in the state, with the appropriation now running through to 2029, the Governor's office announced Friday. Monmouth Park will receive $10 million annually for purses, with the remaining $10 million going toward purses at the Meadowlands Racetrack and Freehold Raceway, as well as money earmarked for bonuses for state-sired horses and breeders' awards. "Given the critical importance of the horse racing industry to not only the state's economy, but to...

Douglas Thomas, a graded-stakes winning jockey who raced primarily at Monmouth Park in the 1970's and 80's, died Mar. 9 at the age of 78, according to an obituary written by his son Robert Thomas and sent by the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association of New Jersey. An earner of over $21 million over the course of his career, the Canadian native retired in 1997 having made over 18,000 starts with a win total in excess of 2,000 races. Many of his winner's circle photos took place at tracks across New Jersey...

Three days after a New Jersey federal judge ordered a class-action lawsuit filed in 2021 by a group of bettors against Bob Baffert to be transferred to a federal court in Kentucky, the legal team for the Hall-of-Fame trainer filed a motion seeking the reassignment of the case to a different, specific Kentucky judge who last summer dismissed a similar case against Baffert. Baffert's Feb. 23 filing in United States District Court (Western District of Kentucky) asked for the reassignment based on the following reasoning: "The Plaintiffs in this case...

Assembly Bill 5893, which called for an extension of annual purse subsidies given to New Jersey's Thoroughbred and Standardbred Industries through 2029, was passed Monday by the New Jersey Senate by a 35-1 margin. The bill had earlier been passed by the Assembly, by a margin of 73-0, and will now head to the desk of Governor Phil Murphy, who is expected to sign the legislation into law. The bill calls for a $20 million subsidy to be split evenly among the two breeds. The money is seen as a...

My first race was two years ago. The 2021 Haskell Invitational S., the summer before my senior year of college. It was the post parade that hooked me. When "Born to Run" sounded through the grandstand as Mandaloun, Hot Rod Charlie and Midnight Bourbon bounced onto the track, it didn't matter how the race would go. I was in. It was enough to latch onto despite the outrage I felt towards my home-state regulators for an ill-advised whip rule that took down Midnight Bourbon, along with my exacta box. But...

Trainer Wesley Ward has begun serving a 15-day suspension after a horse he trained tested positive for the substances naproxen and metformin following a July 15, 2022, race at Monmouth. Ward's suspension began June 23 and ends July 7. He was also fined $2,000. The Paulick Report was first with the story. The infraction occurred in a five-furlong maiden special weight race on the turf with the gelding Insanity It Seems (Tale of the Cat), who won by 2 1/4 lengths. The horse, who is also owned by Ward, has...

Take the time to read colleague Dan Ross's extensive and detailed story on the sordid career of trainer Burton Sipp and you might conclude that, in horse racing, enough is never enough. The story is about a lot more than the many controversies that have shadowed Sipp throughout his career, it is about how racing somehow always let Sipp back in, to give him a third chance, a fourth, fifth chance. It is about the sport's inability to police itself and its failure to permanently ban someone who has no...