Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

NJ Horseracing Interests at War

January 28, 2008

The best and brightest in the state's horse industry were celebrated Sunday night, but attendees of the annual New Jersey Equine Breeder Awards dinner were not celebrating the lack of promised financial help for their industry from Gov. Corzine and the Atlantic City casinos.

Horsemen at Freehold Raceway have said they are willing to go on strike within the next two weeks--effectively shutting down the state's racetracks--to protest what they say is Corzine's failure to deliver subsidies for race purses.

"I'm not sure people fully understand there are literally thousands of people who are depending on the state taking action," said Bill Smythe, the manager of Kentuckina Farms in Plumsted, which won the award as top standardbred breeder for 2007. "It's not just horse owners and breeders and people with racing stables. It's the feed people, the hay people, the blacksmiths, and so on. The industry keeps farms viable, which means preservation of open space. If there isn't help, we're done."

More than a dozen awards were handed out at the dinner. Pure Disco, bred and owned by Patricia A. Generazio, was named top thoroughbred racehorse. Pure Disco won all but one of her final five starts of the year. Those races took place at Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands Racetrack.

Divisional Standardbred awards went to the connections of Dreamlands Latte, Duneside Perch, Snow White, Deweycheatumnhowe, Artcotic, Always A Virgin, Spice Queen, Princetonian, and Snow White. Snow White won the overall standardbred award. She is a daughter of Self Possessed, who stood at Kentuckina Farms.

There were several other honors including Superior Achievement awards, which went to nonracing pleasure horses, ranging in age, discipline, breed and gender.

Smythe said the Kentuckina Farms, which also has locations in Kentucky and Indiana, runs its New Jersey operations on Archertown Road in Plumsted on 91 acres it rents from Continental Farms. He said Kentuciana bred, raised or sold 11 national season's leaders and three divisional champions of 2007.

"It's very meaningful to win the New Jersey breeder of the year award," Smythe said. "We're hopeful of New Jersey having a bright future, despite the recent financial problems."

Michael Campbell, executive director of the state Thoroughbred Breeders Association, based in West Long Branch, said he and other racing officials have heard no new information about Corzine's plans.

Freehold Raceway has announced a second purse cut in two months, and the Meadowlands is expected to follow with a cut of its own. The lack of continued purse subsidies, which had been in place since 2003, has been blamed. Monmouth Park is a on a seasonal break but is scheduled to resume racing in May.

"We hope subsides will be restored by the time Monmouth Park opens, but everybody, no matter what horse breed they're associated with, is concerned," Campbell said.

Mark Mullen, who manages his family's Fair Winds Farm Standardbred operation in Upper Freehold, said, "I've never seen horse people so united. It's such a critical time for all of us."