Paying for mediocrity at Monmouth

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Benny

??? I also reread the NJ breeders quote and his point as i read it, is that at least NJ breds are paid for accomplishing something in coming in 1,2,3 in open company while the new payment for 5th to last are paid for not being competitive but merely making it gate to wire in one piece .?

The breeders comment is stupid. NJ breds maidens run for a 50k purse. About 4 NJ breds total are worth more than 50k. The reason that they can have a large bonus % for NJ breds is few of them are competitive at the open level. This is an entirely different program.

The payment is a competition bonus to help defray the costs of owing a horse in training. If you ship in from another track the bonus pays for your shipping, lasix charge (which the track collects which is big reason they want to add a few bucks to owners purse accounts so they dont have to bill and chase people) and jockey fee.

If for example you have a 16 claimer that runs on grass stabled at Parx and they dont have any options there, perhaps the 700 is the difference between deciding to ship to Delaware or Monmouth to run because at least you wont lose money going to MTH.

Paying horsemen a small stipend to compete is hardly some nefarious or morally challenged idea despite what the uninformed believe. This isnt going to make field size double or cause any huge uptick in entries. However if it helps just a little while distributing a small % of the purse account a little more widely among the backside it will be a success. Especially if Parx decides to close for a portion of the Summer as the rumors are pointing to.