Golf

A 2016 referendum that would have allowed the Meadowlands to open a casino was a colossal failure. The ballot question lost by about 1.5 million votes. But nine years later, there is renewed hope that casino gaming could be on its way to two of the last tracks in the country that do not benefit from gaming revenue. Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural is confident that he will get a casino license sometime in 2026. Monmouth officials are also hopeful voters will approve a casino at the Jersey Shore track. If the Meadowlands gets a casino and Monmouth does not, Meadowlands would have to share the proceeds evenly, which would go towards purses at both tracks. The game changer is that New York is about to award three casino licenses to down state properties. They can be in the five boroughs or Yonkers. Currently, there is a racino at Aqueduct and Yonkers, but they are limited to slot machines and electronic table games. The favorites to get a downstate license are Aqueduct, Yonkers and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, who has proposed building a casino near Citi Field in Queens. If there is the status quo in New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area gets three new casinos, Gural predicts that residents of the Garden State will flock to the nearby New York casinos. Yonkers Raceway is 8.5 miles from the George Washington Bridge and the Jersey border. Will New Jersey politicians and voters allow for a scenario where millions of gambling dollars from New Jersey residents are spent in New York State? “I'm fairly confident, especially if they put a casino at Yonkers, which would be the closest to Northern New Jersey, that people will say to themselves, 'why would I drive over the bridge, sit in traffic and pay $18 if I could go to the Meadowlands to gamble?'” Gural said. “I'm a big believer in common sense. People have told me that a casino at the Meadowlands would be the most successful casino in the country, and I don't doubt that. We have a beautiful facility. We have sports betting. A full casino, I think would pack them in.” Legislative efforts are already underway to facilitate casino development at the two racetracks, including a proposed constitutional amendment (Bill SCR130) that would allow casino gaming at the Meadowlands Racetrack and Monmouth Park Racetrack. In a race between Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli, there will be a new governor in New Jersey early next year. Neither has come out for or against New Jersey getting racetrack casinos. “Once we know where the downstate licenses are going to be and who the governor is going to be, then we've got to try to get a referendum that would allow a casino only at the Meadowlands and not any place else,” Gural said. Gural said with the way the 2106 referendum was written, it was never going to be approved by the voters. “I learned from that experience what not to do,” he said. Gural will campaign for a casino at the Meadowlands only. He doesn't fear the Atlantic City casino lobby, which has successfully kept casinos out of the New Jersey tracks for nearly 50 years. “I think the opposition is going to come from New York,” he said. “Once New York opens, then people from New York aren't going to go to Atlantic City anymore. So why wouldn't they want to see money stay in New Jersey? It can only help them eventually. The states are broke. So their biggest fear is that the state raises the tax rate on them. They just raised the tax rate on online gambling. If I were the Atlantic City casinos, my biggest worry would be the state needing money would simply raise the tax rate in Atlantic City. So this would help them because they could say, well, we sat on the sidelines and allowed a casino at the Meadowlands, which is generating hundreds of millions of dollars. You should leave us alone. And my guess is that that would be a persuasive argument, too.” Gural says that should he get a casino and Monmouth does not, the money from the casino earmarked for purses would be split evenly between the two tracks. “I think this would solidify us as the premier harness track in the country,” he said. “We are already the number one harness track in North America, but we really struggle because we're competing with Yonkers. They get $50 million a year in purse subsidies. And the two Pennsylvania tracks (Pocono Downs and Harrah's Philadelphia) get $30 million each. We've been getting a $6-million subsidy from the state. You can see why we're at a major disadvantage.” At Monmouth, Dennis Drazin, who heads the Darby Development team that manages Monmouth Park, isn't quite as optimistic as Gural. “This is a tough one,” he said. “I've been trying to get a casino for 20 to 30 years and frankly have not been successful. The last time we went around and had the ballot question, it was overwhelmingly defeated, but I think it was set up to be a failure because the legislation made it easy to challenge. There was no specificity of where they'd be located, tax rate, who would benefit from it. It just didn't have the accompanying enabling legislation for people to intellectually evaluate it, and it was easy for the opposition to spend 30 minutes to get it defeated. “Having said that, things have changed. Now they're going to award downstate casinos. It's going to be direct competition for New Jersey. I think the New Jersey legislators and Governor Murphy and whoever the next governor is, either Ciattarelli or Mikie Sherrill, understand that we need to protect the gaming dollars in New Jersey. So I share Jeff's hope this will get done, but I don't think it's any easy lift.” While any new source of revenue would help Monmouth, Drazin said he will fight to see to it that both tracks gets a casino. He said that the legislation calls for full casinos at both the Meadowlands and Monmouth. “[Casino owner] Morris Bailey is our gaming partner at Monmouth Park,” Drazin said. “If we were to get one, I think that there may be less of an impact on Atlantic City if we just get slots and not full table games. So that's one scenario that Monmouth Park would be willing to accept in order to get this done. We currently are not in favor of a casino at Meadowlands and not at Monmouth Park. We think the ballot question should be for both racetracks. Jeff is unlikely to get the support of Morris Bailey or Monmouth Park without our getting something out of this, and that won't help him.” Nothing is imminent but the sense of optimism is something new. Both New Jersey tracks struggle to fill cards and run limited schedules. The Meadowlands runs only twice a week and Monmouth is open three days a week and offers only 50 days of racing. With casinos, that will no doubt change and purses should rise dramatically. The first casino in New Jersey, Resorts International, now owned by Bailey, opened on May 26, 1978. It's been a tough grind for the Meadowlands and Monmouth ever since and Atlantic City and Garden State Park closed long ago. Could it be that the fight is about to end, with the racetracks being declared the winner? There is hope. The post At Last Optimism that Meadowlands and Monmouth May Get Casinos appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. 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The spotlight turns to Haras du Chevotel stud manager Hugo Namur, who is next up in TDN Europe's consignor Q&A, which provides an insight behind some of the vendors in the build-up to the August Yearling Sale in Deauville.  Haras du Chevotel is based in the heart of Normandy and has been associated with quality breeding for many years.  One of the younger guns on the sales circuit, Namur runs through the farm's consignment, offers what young stallions he is taking note of and much more.  Tell us a bit about the background to your draft. You are one of the younger guns on the sales scene. We are a small farm which has been consigning horses for 11 years now. Each year, we sell one or two in August or in October. This year, we had two for August, but one of them got sick, and we will surely sell that one in October, but he will be unable to be sold at this sale. That is the colt by Space Blues out of Oriental Road (lot 179). So the one remaining is the Night of Thunder out of Tres Americanqueen (lot 290). Still, not bad. He's a very beautiful colt, with some size and is well-proportioned. He has a beautiful way of moving, and a beautiful pedigree. I think he'll do well.  What young sires are you most looking forward to seeing the progeny [yearlings or foals] of this season? You know, we only have 10 or 12 mares, so we go to very few stallions. Personally, I really like Space Blues. He has his first two-year-olds this year, but I like him a lot, and Ghaiyyath (Ire), who has his first three-year-olds this year. But we're not really using very fast, commercial stallions. So I'm not that interested in them. In your experience, what type of horse does particularly well at the August Sale? You really need a horse who is well-made, with a beautiful way of going, a great pedigree and one who walks well, because today people are really looking at that a lot more than they used to.    What is you best memory on the sale ground at Arqana? It was the first year that we sold horses in August. We sold a filly for 500,000 euros to Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum, bought by his bloodstock agent (Angus Gold). That was a great moment. That was a crazy memory for us, going with a filly like that who made 500,000 euros. It was really a big moment for us. Magnificent.  And when you do get that all-important result in the sales ring, how do you like to celebrate? And with whom?  Honestly, we celebrate the failures as well as the victories. It never stops and you know that if you have a setback, that can turn into a success, and when you have a success, you know that can turn as well. So the best thing to do is to always enjoy a good meal and try to have a good time. We work a lot with the same bloodstock agent, John Tyrrell from Ireland, who the bosses have worked with for 25 years. And you know, we are really a little guy in the midst of big guys. So, we try to create our own little mix of horses. We keep some of them to race. We sell some. And that's it. We try to do our best.  Predictions for the yearling sale market?  Every year, we say that it's going to stop, that the market will go down, and all of that. But I have the impression that there will always be people who have money and who are interested in investing. So, I think that the good market that has been ongoing for several years is going to continue. But I think stallions are becoming much too expensive, and at some point, that's going to have to stop. We have to pay attention to that. Too much is the enemy of good, and unfortunately, the economy encourages the desire to make money, and that's understandable. But I think we have to pay attention to that.  If you weren't involved in bloodstock, what career path would you have taken? I think I would have worked in real estate. I really like everything that has to do with stone, wood and architecture. So yes, it's a little bit different, because there, you have to talk to people. Whereas here, I'm talking to horses and it's good because they don't respond. But yes, I think I would have done something like that.  Tell us something that people don't know about you? That I exist.  Do you have any superstitions or good luck charms? No. I try not to do that.  Best piece of advice you ever received? To be someone who is honest and can be relied upon.  The post Arqana Vendors In The Spotlight: Q&A With Haras du Chevotel appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

TAB, chucking money at a losing cause is always going to end in tears HRNZ need to stop the folly that putting on races with big stakes is going to work! They race the wrong way around for a start, they have not got the interest in the harness racing for a variety of reasons. HRNZ in my humble opinion have not got the right people making the right decisions unfortunately. Anyone know what has happened to the Committee or was that just wind?

You making stuff up again Galah ! The guy you refer to is a Crusaders man.....Canterbury , red and black ! The most one-eyed bunch in the land ! And Rugby certainly been thru the wringer at times , spending more than they earn ! Racing often spoken in the same breathe as racing  , as it once was when there were no alternatives. Auckland actually were so unbeatable a while back they took the Shield on the road to show the rest of Country, then when Canterbury decided to improve and get out of the cellar ,what did they do........starting importing dozens of great players from Auckland, Northland and Taranaki in particular and sent  others to their feeder team Tasman to add even more depth. Maybe this should be reversed now and Canterbury can send say 80-100 horses North now. Any horses cos Auckland has the top Stallions ,top trainers and drivers to make their own luck , and become great again ! So send horses and $$$$ North and be a little generous !  

What Sandown Lakeside Races Where Sandown Racecourse – 591-659 Princes Hwy, Springvale VIC 3171 When Wednesday, August 13, 2025 First Race 1pm AEST Visit Dabble Wednesday’s Victorian metro card is set for the Sandown Lakeside circuit with the rail out 6m the entire circuit and the course posted as a Good 4. The opener jumps at 1pm AEST and the closer at 5:05pm. Lakeside often rewards on-pace runners early, but once the racing line shifts, the best ground comes three-to-four off the fence in the straight with the rail out so far. Best Bet at Sandown: Aqueduct Aqueduct has come back a sharper, more professional galloper, stringing together three wins on the synthetic before graduating to a city-grade assignment. He draws to land 2–3 pairs behind the speed from barrier four, and the 3kg claim for Luke Cartwright keeps him nicely in at 59.5kg. His recent wins featured genuine tempo and strong last 400m splits, exactly the profile that transfers to Lakeside’s 1200m. With race-fit rivals like Some People Callme and Flying Valley to measure up against, a clean jump and tractable run-in transit should see Aqueduct put them away late. Best Bet Race 3 – #1 Aqueduct (4) 4yo Gelding | T: Tony & Calvin McEvoy | J: Luke Cartwright (a3) (62.5kg) Next Best at Sandown: Du Clisson Du Clisson is a likeable mare who keeps turning up and running time, and she gets the right set-up second-up at 1200m. Barrier 13 isn’t ideal, but Jordan Childs can ride patient, blend into the three-wide lane from the 500m and launch late — a pattern that often plays at Lakeside. Her profile (5:1-3-0) says she gives you a run for your money, and her recent seconds at BM64 grade stack up nicely against this lot. With even luck in transit, Du Clisson will take some holding out Next Best Race 8 – #9 Du Clisson (13) 4yo Mare | T: Tom Dabernig | J: Jordan Childs (59kg) Best Value at Sandown: Super Trooper Super Trooper was dominant winning a BM70 at Pakenham last start, and finds another suitable 1400m with a soft map. From barrier three, Logan Bates can park the Freedman gelding just behind likely pace-setters King Tut and Emphasize, then angle off turning for home. He carries 59.5kg but again gets the 2kg pull from the apprentice, and his recent figures say he can sustain a strong 600m build at this trip. Super Trooper is holding together beautifully this prep and looks ready to go on with the job. Best Value Race 4 – #3 Super Trooper (3) 4yo Gelding | T: Anthony & Sam Freedman | J: Logan Bates (a2) (59.5kg) Wednesday quaddie tips for Sandown Sandown quadrella selections Wednesday, August 13, 2025 1-7-8 3-6-8 2-3-5-7 4-9-11-14 Horse racing tips View the full article