from Meadowlands Media Relations

East Rutherford, NJ — February was a month for the record books at the Meadowlands as total live handle was up more than $3.4 million over the same four comparable weekends of 2015. The total increase amounts to $485,942 per night. Every program in February featured total handle of more than $3 million with an overall streak of nine straight nights heading into this weekend’s racing.

“I just want to commend Pete Koch and the race office on their great job,” said Meadowlands CEO/GM Jason M. Settlemoir. “The $3.2 million a night, the $109,000 Pick-5 payout, the $20,000 Pick-4 payout… None of that could not have happened without the ultra competitive races that the race office put together.”

The formula for success continues to be creating full fields with well-matched horses. That was best illustrated by the industry’s lowest percentage of winning favorites, which for the month was just 30 percent.

Those wide-open races led to large payoffs for handicappers, especially in the low-takeout multi-race wagers. The Pick-5 saw an average return of $21,594 for a 50 cent wager while the two nightly 50 cent Pick-4s returned an average of $4,216. Both wagers feature a low takeout rate of 15 percent.

While the multi-race wagers proved extra challenging during the month, the single-race wagers also proved lucrative for handicappers while offering the large pools that horseplayers crave. The average exacta pool was more than $66,000 per race while the trifecta pools averaged nearly $50,000 per race for the month.

The landscape will be changing in the next few weeks as more tracks in the Northeast will open for their 2016 seasons. The region’s horse shortage will surely stress the race office as it continues to hustle full fields of well-matched horses. The Meadowlands handle undeniably shows that races that are capable of increasing pool size are a major barometer to increasing business.

The Meadowlands has reached out to the United States Trotting Association (USTA) to request that they work with the Meadowlands and other major tracks in the region to put together a coordinated schedule that takes into account the horse shortage that already exists and proactively addresses the major horse shortage that is anticipated over the next several years. Meadowlands officials strongly believe that it is not in the industry’s best interests to race short fields or be forced to cancel race dates at the last minute as it especially sends the wrong message to the politicians who have the industry’s long-term fate in their control.

Post Time Change
Starting with racing on Friday, March 11, post time will be moved back to 7:15 p.m. This post time change had previously been announced as starting on Friday, March 18 but will be moved up one week earlier.

Live racing at the Meadowlands takes place this week on Friday and Saturday nights with 13-race programs beginning at 6:35 p.m.

For more information, visit www.playmeadowlands.com.