Its the jobs Chuck. NJ is opening up betting parlors for the jobs.

Sure all 17 of them

Tomorrow's card also looks very bettable. That Spend A Buck Stakes has a bevy of options, and who doesn't love $82k NJ-bred races? $75k maidens? Monmouth is so onto something.

Increasing the handle at ANY track has been extremely challenging for the last two plus years. The majority of tracks have seen a decline. For Monmouth to double there handle that they had last year in this marketpalce is unheard of.

Today was a huge success for Monmouth. They are either on something or onto something and I think they are onto something brilliant with what they have done to this meet.

100 k plus carryover on the .50 cent pick five another brilliant idea.

Boutique meets can work if you force the slot states that had horrendous racing before the slots out of the game.

Indiana and West Virginia should stick to John Mellencamp concerts and jug-blowing.

LOL

I know an increase of 100% in handle and attendence is great news. Being the "doubting Thomas" that I am about NJ racing as I have seen it decline steadily since the NJSEA took over from the Hess Family. My question is how much did the handle increase on a per race basis? How many races were run last year on opening day versus this year. Lets not forget that Monmouth will have significantly fewer racing days while offering nearly the same amount of races. I would think the critical metric is handle per race rather than handle per day.

On the bright side I'm sure it is up but is it truly up 100%?

ok. i'll put it into your narrow little context. the handle doubled and 8,000 more people showed up. this was not good enough. the crowd should of tripled and the handle quadrupled....yeah, thats more of a realistic view. without that, the media should of reported that opening day at monmouth was a failure......there , does that make you happy. while you are at it, stick a fork in monmouth...its over, people ONLY bet 4.5 million more this year on opening day! i better go jump off a bridge.

it's only one day. i'd wait a while to see how it all unfolds before declaring it a huge success.

2009: 11 races, 90 runners, $4,279,438 ($389k/race; $47.5k/horse)
2010: 13 races, 126 runners, $9,357,444 ($720k/race; $74.2k/horse)

and see what it does to the other tracks across the nation.

ok. i'm sorry....it was a minor success. whats the difference? success is success vs. they did not change anything and had the same results as last years opening day....then the same people would be saying "monmouth is going under"........the glass is always half empty...a great way to look at life....sorry for being an optimist. oh yeah, it was only one day look at the fields and the players involved....the writing is on the wall. they won't come back next weekend or the one after either when the money starts getting bigger as the summer goes on. it won't take much more and they will surpass last year in no time....won't work, move along, nothing to see here

Oh so it really didn't double. HUGE FAILURE. They should quit while they are ahead.

2+2 = 5

Opening Day was virtually guaranteed a success giving the hype and buzz surrounding the meet, the pent-up demand of local racing fans who are used to seeing a live race a few weeks earlier and nice weather as well.

What a lot of folks seem to be missing, however, is that this whole plan is about streamlining for an entire summer, not just one day. Day #1 is a good start, but now as the meet wears-on, and the novelty wears-off, what happens? Then we'll know how well this consolidation move worked. It's early to declare it a rousing success, but early indications are certainly positive.

One day a meet does not make.

This is the important metric IMO. Race/race comparison.

:$::$::$::$:

Nice. A few more days like that and they could afford to fix their website.

Hang with it Homer. You are not alone.

well, sorry. just stating my opinion. didn't mean to step on any toes. and i'm a half full person as well, but this industry needs far more than one big day at monmouth.