Soaring purses spark spending spree at Monmouth Park with $30 million up for grabs – Asbury Park Press

Maximum Security greets fans in the paddock prior to the fifth race at Monmouth Park. Trainer Jason Servis accompanied the horse to greet fans who showed support after Maximum Security was disqualified in the Kentucky Derby. Oceanport, NJ Saturday, May 18, 2019

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OCEANPORT – If you’re looking for an early indication that Monmouth Park’s quality of racing is on the rise, how about Saturday’s spending spree that caused a flurry of activity around the racing office. In all, some 12 horses were claimed – purchased for a designated price – during the 12-race card.

Monmouth Park officials were hard-pressed to recall a day with that much horse trading. In fact, you’d have to go back to a day like May 22, 2010, when 19 horses were claimed on the second day of the so-called Elite Meet, when Monmouth Park had the nation’s highest average daily purses at just under $800,000, to find a similar event.

It’s no coincidence, with average daily purses at Monmouth Park during the current 61-day meet expected to be around $500,000. That’s up from around $325,000 last year, thanks to a $10 million supplement for overnight purses.

Trainer Kelly Breen was the most enthusiastic buyer of all, claiming seven horses over the weekend for a total of $103,000 for four different owners, ranging in price from $22,000 for the New Jersey-bred Heading Home, to $10,000 each for Very Charming and Banker’s Island.

There have been 25 horses claimed over the first five racing days of the meet, which opened on May 4.

Twelve days after winning the Kentucky Derby, only to be disqualified for interference, Maximum Security was back on the track at Monmouth Park. Stephen Edelson, @steveedelsonAPP

“`For sure, there are some good opportunities for claiming,’’ said Breen, with the track’s stable area expecte to be close to capacity this summer. “Now you have better purses, so that opens the eyes of certain owners. Last year we had two horses, maybe we can have four this year. That’s been part of it. The increases in purses has had something to do with it.

“Two of the horses I claimed are Jersey-breds, because now we’re back to having a 40 percent bonus for the Jersey-breds (in open company). So the increase in purses, the increase in bonuses motivates people. People are paying attention to Monmouth Park.’’

Breen, an Old Bridge native whose runners have earned $33 million on the track during his career, is still looking for his first win of the meet, having sent eight starters out over the first five days of racing.

“I didn’t claim many last year but I was in a different demographic,’’ Breen said. “I had a lot of younger horses. But the meat and potatoes at Monmouth Park is claimers. You need to have a balanced stable to have the amount of runners to keep your numbers up, starts-per-stall, that sort of thing. If you have all stake horses you’re racing once every six weeks.

“I’ve been a fixture here, coming to Monmouth Park for 35 years. So being here and helping promote the track and my business, it’s great. This is my home.’’

Of course, it works both ways. On Saturday, Diamond PIay was claimed from Kenwood Racing, one of Breen’s owner’s, for $30,000. Four races later, Breen claimed Shimmyshimmy Shake for $12,500 for Kenwood Racing.

In April, Breen and owner George Hall, who teamed to win the 2011 Belmont Stakes with Ruler on Ice, lost Roaming Union, runner-up in last year’s Pegasus Stakes and sixth in the $1 million TVG.com Haskell Invitational, when the son of Union Rags was claimed for $62,500 at Aqueduct.

Food trucks roll in

Haskell Day is the defining moment of the summer along Oceanport Ave. But Memorial Day weekend, when the wildly popular Jersey Shore Food Truck Festival, featuring three days worth of the best moveable cuisine anywhere, rolls into town it’s nearly as important.

It all gets underway on Saturday with the first bundled stakes day of the season, with the Grade 2 Monmouth Stakes, the Grade 3 Salvator Mile, the Boiling Springs Stakes and the John J. Reilly Handicap on the card.

How big is it having 42 food trucks on site, along with strong racing cards?

In 2018, a crowd of 15,764 showed up on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend for a 13-race card that produced a total handle of nearly $6 million. For the weekend, which included rain, some 38,301 patrons poured through the turnstiles, with a total handle of over $12 million.

Need for speed

While Bob Baffert has won the Haskell a record eight times, the California trainer hasn’t sent a horse to the Jersey Shore the past two summers. This year he’s got plenty of candidates – he had three in the Kentucky Derby starting gate – for the Grade 1 fixture on July 20.

Baffert understands better than anyone that speed is tough to beat on Haskell Day, so his best candidate might be a horse not on the Triple Crown trail.

Mucho Gusto is coming off an impressive win in Saturday’s Grade 3 Laz Barrera Stakes at Santa Anita, wiring the field in covering seven furlongs in 1:22.96. Think back to 2014, when Baffert sent Bayern to the Haskell off a win in the Grade 2 Woody Stephens Stakes at seven furlongs, successfully stretching out to nine furlongs with a wire-to-wire, 7 1/2-length win. He was credited with a Beyer Speed Figure of 111 – Triple Crown winner American Pharoah earned a 109 a year later – and went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

While Roadster finished a distant 15th in the Kentucky Derby, his most impressive performance came at a mile-and-1/8, the Haskell distance, in his victory over Game Winner in the Santa Anita Derby. Game Winner likes to come from off the pace, but has plenty of tactical speed. He came from the back of the pack to hit the wire sixth in the Kentucky Derby and is a probable starter in the Belmont Stakes on June 8.

The least likely candidate appears to be Improbable, who could get some time off after rearing up in the Preakness starting gate en route to a sixth place finish, after being elevated to fourth in the Kentucky Derby after Maximum Security was disqualified.

Slow start

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The purse increases have been palpable, jumping 45 percent over the same time period last year to a daily average of $393,678. Monmouth Park has opened on Kentucky Derby Day and run five days prior to Memorial Day weekend the past two years.

But while purses have gotten a sizeable bump, wagering has been slow to follow early on. The amount of money bet in-house on Monmouth Park races is up 3.7 percent at $349,650 per-day, while the amount wagered elsewhere on races from Oceanport is down 1.8 percent on average at $2,769,417.

Field size has remained constant at seven starters-per-race, having run 53 races, the exact same number as a year ago. Attendance has been flat as well, up 1.2 percent.

Fast on grass

There were a pair of impressive performances in turf sprint stakes last weekend, highlighted by Sunday’s victory by Wet Your Whistle in the inaugural running of the $75,000 Get Serious Stakes, rolling to the wire 3 1/4-lengths in front for his third straight win. Nice Tune, the longest shot in the field at 93-1, got up for second place to trigger some nice payouts.

On Saturday, it was Goldwood withstanding an early battle with Miss Deplorable en route to a victory in the $75,000 Politely Stakes for her fifth win in 14 career starts for trainer Jorge Duarte Jr. and Colts Neck Stables.

It was the third win of the day for leading rider Jose Ferrer. The defending champ in the jockey standings now has 10 wins in 32 mounts, with earnings of $304,958 through five racing days.

Stephen Edelson is an Asbury Park Press sports columnist who has been covering athletics at the Jersey Shore for nearly 35 years. He’s passionate about the area’s rich sports history, and the history being made today. Contact him at: @SteveEdelsonAPP; sedelson@gannettnj.com.

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