Christie reaches deal on private ownership of horse tracks

New Jersey horsemen's and breeders' groups were given new life Thursday after Gov. Christie reached agreement to transfer state ownership of the Meadowlands and Monmouth Park horse tracks to private owners.

They now cautiously await details of the plan, which puts the state's two largest tracks in the hands of the private sector for the first time and eliminates purse subsidies, starting June 1.

The deal is subject to approval by the 11-member board of the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, which meets Monday to vote on the proposal, and also to a written contract, said Dennis Drazin, chairman of the New Jersey Racing Commission, which regulates the racing industry.

"This is a huge success for the governor in achieving his objective, which is to make the racetracks self-sufficient," Drazin said Friday.

The agreement, Drazin said, "will place the tracks in a position to succeed in the future by being owned and operated by private enterprise.

"I know all of the horsemen's groups are looking forward to working with the new operators and will work very hard to achieve success," he said.

Drazin said the plan's details would be made public in the coming weeks. Until then, Michael Campbell, executive director of the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association of New Jersey, said his group would reserve comment.

The association, which represents more than 300 thoroughbred breeders in the Garden State, was vocal at last year's Gaming Summit hearings on its need to compete against racetracks in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and New York that now have slot-machine gambling as an added source of revenue. The hearings, sponsored by legislative Democrats, were held to review Christie's plan to overhaul New Jersey's casino and horse-racing industries.

When the Republican governor announced his overhaul plan July 21, he made two points clear: He did not support expanding casino gambling beyond Atlantic City, and he wanted to terminate the annual subsidy from Atlantic City casinos - $30 million over the last three years - to the state's racetracks that went toward winning purses in exchange for their not installing slot machines.

"I was determined to bring this deal home," Christie said in a statement late Thursday night.

Under his plan, two private businessmen - Jeff Gural, a New York investor and developer, and Morris Bailey, co-owner of Resorts Atlantic City Casino - pledged separately to run live racing at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford and Monmouth Park in Oceanport, and shoulder all operating costs.

Gural plans to invest $90 million to build a new grandstand at the Meadowlands, a harness-racing track, and develop an off-track wagering facility in Bayonne. Bailey agreed to assume operation of the off-track wagering facility in Woodbridge and work with Gural to develop additional OTW facilities, in addition to running the thoroughbred Monmouth Park track.