Monmouth Park will kick off its 67th
season of Thoroughbred racing on Saturday with a 12-race program, topped by the
$75,000 Decathlon Stakes.
The historic Oceanport oval starts
2012 under new management, with Darby Development LLC managing the facility for
the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, which secured a five-year
lease from the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority.
Monmouth will offer a 65-day live
meeting, running from May 12 through Oct. 7. There also will be 10 days of turf
racing at the Meadowlands, two of which were run on the weekend of May 4-5. The
final eight days will be run Fridays and Saturdays from Oct. 12 through Nov. 3.
Monmouth will run Saturdays and
Sundays through May, plus Monday, May 28, Memorial Day.
The track will run three days a week
through June and July, racing Friday, Saturday and Sunday, plus Wednesday, the
Fourth of July. In August, Monmouth will add four Thursday cards (Aug. 9, 16,
23 and 30) with a 4 p.m. first post and a concert to follow.
September brings a
return to the Saturday-Sunday schedule, through Oct. 7, plus the Labor Day
holiday on Monday, Sept. 3.
Post time for the first race every
day (except twilight Thursdays) will be 12:50 p.m. The only exception will be
Sunday, July 29, which features the running of the $1 million Haskell
Invitational. First post on Haskell day is 12 noon.
50-CENT PICK 3 ADDED TO MONMOUTH’S
WAGERING MENU
Monmouth will add a 50-cent Pick 3
wager to its betting menu for the 2012 season, giving all the multiple-race
wagers a 50-cent base price. In addition to the Pick 3, Monmouth also offers a
50-cent Pick 4, 50-cent Pick 5 and 50-cent Place Pick 6.
Win, place, show, daily double,
exacta and trifecta wagers have a $1 base cost, while the Superfecta has a
10-cent base cost.