Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association of New Jersey
By Bill Finley, TDN
When Monmouth Park opens its doors for the 2026 season on Saturday, the issues it faces will already be obvious. Only eight races were carded with 63 horses entered. With only 500 to 600 horses on the grounds, the Elkwood section of the backstretch has temporarily been closed. The Long Branch Stakes did not fill, but the racing office salvaged the race and it will be run Sunday with a field of six.
Those are just some of the issues facing the picturesque Jersey Shore track as it prepares to kick off a 50-day meet, and they are serious enough to raise questions about Monmouth's future. But Dennis Drazin, who heads the management team that runs the track, is adamant that the track that has been around since 1946 will survive.
“I'm not going to let Monmouth Park close on my watch,” Drazin said. “Whatever I have to do to make ends meet, I'm going to do to support live racing and breeding in the state of New Jersey.”
The obvious quick fix would be for Monmouth to get a casino, something that it has been pressing for for decades, but has always been stymied by political forces that back the Atlantic City casinos. But there is hope this time. Bills have been introduced that would allow Monmouth and the Meadowlands to open casinos, but they must be passed by a 60-40 “super majority” in both branches of the legislature. If that happens, the casino question would then appear on the 2026 ballot. In 2016, the voters were asked to approve casinos outside of Atlantic City, an initiative that went down to a staggering defeat, losing by 54.48% points.
Drazin believes that the idea of a casino at Monmouth remains a possibility, but he isn't necessarily expecting it to happen overnight.
“Right now, all our eggs are in the casino basket, but the casino play is running out of time for this year,” he said. “It doesn't mean it can't happen, but we're dedicated to continuing over the next two years at the latest while continuing to try to make the casino play. Our first preference is this year, but with the budget coming up and June 30 probably being the end of legislators coming in for the year, that just gives us between now and June 30 to try and get it on the ballot for November. We're continuing to press the issue, but right now we're running out of time. Absent the casino, I'm going to continue to do the best I can to put on the best show that we can given the limited resources.”
If the casino effort fails, Drazin said he may turn to Historical Horse Racing Machines.
“If you were to say we give up completely on a casino, which I'm not prepared to do, then you turn around and you look at things like historical racing, which would also require a constitutional referendum,” he said. “Maybe there's not as much opposition to historical racing as it relates to casino expansion. But I think if you make that play now and go on the ballot for that, you probably would be foreclosing the opportunity to get the casino down the road because they would say we already took care of you.”
The purses at Monmouth are subsidized to the tune of an annual $20 million investment by the state, half of which goes to the Meadowlands. That money allows Monmouth to have purses that are comparable to tracks that it competes against, like Parx, Laurel and Delaware Park. But Governor Mikie Sherrill, who was elected in 2025, has cut the subsidy to $5 million in her budget for fiscal year 2027. Because of this uncertainty, a new bill was introduced in March 2026. It would allow Monmouth Park to drastically reduce its racing dates–to as few as 25 days–if the state fails to provide at least $10 million in purse money.
It's still one more battle Drazin is facing.
“Governor [Phil] Murphy [Sherrill's predecessor] was very, very good to us over the years,” Drazin said. “In his proposed budget, he took the 20 down to 10 and it always got put back up to the 20. But when the state needs revenue, you can't cut some people and not others without raising eyebrows and having people say, 'This isn't fair.' So this is a process we've been going through even in the prior administration and the legislators who support racing and the governors have always ultimately given us the $20 million. So I wouldn't say I'm panicked yet.”
Drazin said Monmouth's horse population will be down from last year, but will eventually reach about 1,000 horses. They are facing competition from what is a much healthier racing circuit in Parx, and it will only get worse with Delaware Park now open and with Colonial Downs set to reopen June 25. There is no part of the country that has such a glut of racetracks, and Monmouth is the only track in the region that does not receive revenue from casinos.
“[New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association Executive Director] Mike Musto has been very vocal about the whole Mid-Atlantic region and what needs to change in terms of not competing against each other,” Drazin said. “This is something we've been struggling with for as long as I've been around. Just by way of example, the conflict between the Haskell and the Jim Dandy is probably the biggest standout. Instead of one race with 10 to 12 horses, you have two races with six to eight. That doesn't make sense to me. I think we need to cooperate.”
Monmouth Park is a survivor, but little has gone its way in recent years. It made headlines for the wrong reasons at the end of last year's meet when it ran out of money and couldn't immediately pay horsemen.
The track's survival may hinge on getting a casino, but that is far from a guarantee. Absent that, what can Drazin and his team do? His answer is this: find a way.
“I'm trying to save an industry,” Drazin said. “I'm trying to do the right thing. It would be easy for me to walk away from it all in terms of my own time and how much effort I put into all this, but that's not part of my DNA. I took on the responsibility years ago to help the horsemen and I spend probably more time than I should on the track instead of concentrating on my law practice. But I think it's very important that horse racing in New Jersey and breeding in New Jersey survives. It is something that has always been part of my life. As long as I am here, it's not going to go away.”