Manalapan, NJ — If there was any question regarding the beneficial impact of the state’s five-year, $100 million appropriation for New Jersey’s horse racing industry, which was approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in 2019, one needs only to look at Friday’s entries at The Meadowlands.

Friday’s 14-race card at the Big M features 12 first-round divisions of New Jersey Sire Stakes action for 2-year-old trotters and pacers, with a total of 93 horses entered in those events. It is the most horses entered in the opening round of the NJSS for 2-year-olds since 2007 when the names of 104 horses were dropped in the entry box.

The low point for 2-year-old entries in an NJSS first round during that time span was 15 in 2017. Since then the numbers have improved and 2023 marks the fourth consecutive year of increases, following 50 in 2020, 67 in 2021 and 73 in 2022.

“Everything is on the upswing and that would not have happened without the appropriation,” Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association officer Mike Klau said.

According to the New Jersey Horse Racing Impact Report for 2016-2021, the number of Standardbred horses on New Jersey breeding farms grew by 55 percent during that period and the number of Standardbred broodmares bred to N.J. stallions increased by 248 percent. There were five Standardbred stallions in N.J. in 2016 but the number has not dropped below 13 in any year since the appropriation began.

Furthermore, yearling nominations for the New Jersey Sire Stakes program increased from 38 to 605 during the time span.

Klau recently talked with New Jersey State Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin about the impact of the appropriation and the importance of it being continued.

“The point I made to the Speaker is that all this doesn’t happen without the appropriation,” said Klau, who is the SBOANJ second vice president as well as chairman of the Breeder Committee and syndication manager at Southwind Farms. “The breeding industry is what feeds everything else, but without the racing, there is no breeding industry.

“This industry has boomed since the appropriation. It has worked in every aspect of our industry — the breeding, the racing, the sub-industries like hay, blacksmiths, veterinarians — as well as preserving green space. So, when they look at the appropriation and ask what they are getting for those dollars, we have concrete evidence that, yeah, this worked.”