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Freehold's closing ripples through NJ harness racing

By: Stephen Edelson
Asbury Park Press
USA today Network - New Jersey

..... As founding director of the Equine Science Center at Rutgers University Karyn Malinowski has had her finger on the pulse of the state's racing community and has been a staunch advocate for New Jersey horsemen, while authoring the important Equine Industry Economic Impact Report in 2007.
..... But as for so many, the closing of Freehold Raceway has altered her calculation.
..... "I am retiring after 47 years of dealing with this. and I have decided not to invest right now," she said. "I thought, 'I'm going to get back into driving, spend my retirement time with a couple of new racehorses.' But now I'm like, 'Really? where am I going to race?' I don't want to go to Delaware every weekend night to race. So I'm putting that on the back burner for now."
..... It's a sobering assessment.
..... Those once-abstract numbers quantifying the industry;s contribution to the state;s finances have become part of the day-to-day economic reality for many since the historic harness racetrack was shuttered at the end if last year. [2024]
..... What's tough to compete is the impact on a way of life that as been benefiting communities and small businesses in numerous ways for decades, although the anecdotal evidence is everywhere.
..... Vincent Ginsburg is a third-generation Freehold Raceway horseman who had been one of the top drivers at the track, before switching to training in recent years.
..... "My grandfather came down here in the early 1980s, and he made Freehold his home track," said Ginsburg, a Jackson Township resident. "It's home. It's where I got my first pari-mutual win, and met a lot of great people. So losing Freehold sucks.
..... "I've seriously considered moving,: he added. "But I've got a house, a wife, kids It's hard to just uproot my family and take them somewhere else and not know how it's going to work out."
..... There were 85 days of racing at Freehold raceway in 2024, on the site where races had been run for 170 years. The sale of the 58-acre property to Raceway RE Partners was announced on June 11, [2025] with harness racing not part of the new owners current plans for redeveloping the site.

Ripples throughout industry

..... At Monmouth Park, horses are stabled at the state's only through-bread track for the entire met. At Freehold and the Meadolands Racetrack, now horses are stabled at area farms and shipped to the track the day of the race.
..... And it's those farms, particularly the training centers with tracks, that are feeling the impact.
..... Congress Hill Farm, a 200-acre facility in Monroe with 150 stalls and training track, has been the farm of legendary driver and trainer Herve Fillion, and has been owned by the Landy family since 1986.
..... "When Freehold closed I envisioned this being a problem and now it is a problem, with 50 open stalls," Sam Lady said. "That's $20,000 per month less income to maintain the facility.
..... "Without those 150 stalls full, it's just not enough rent to pay they guys who maintain the racetrack, maintain the fence, do all those things," he said. "How are we going to keep our farms going? And this goes for the blacksmiths, the veterinarians, the feed companies, the tack shops and all the people that work with harness horses."
..... Many horses that raced at Freehold are not good enough to compete at the Meadowlands, the top harness track in the country. The Meadowlands, in East Rutherford, did get the $1.6 million purse subsidy that had been earmarked for Freehold in 2025, and will use it to run some lower-level races.
..... What it means is that owners and trainers based in Central Jersey have to travel lone distances to race now.
..... "A lot of horsemen have had OT sell their stock. Ginsburg sad. "I know their stock," Ginsburg said. "I know some trainers who have to travel all the way to Ocean City, Maryland [Ocean Downs], to race. Or Rosecroft [Raceway] in Maryland. those are a good three-to-four hour drive to race for cheap money against cheap horses.
..... "I'd like to race at Pocono [Downs in Wikes-Barre, Pennsylvania], but now it's daytime racing. So you'd have to leave at round five in the morning," he said. "Just shipping one horse thee costs you around $400 and that's long-ship, and that that is tough on horses. chester [Harrah;s Philadelphia] isn't that far away, but you're racing against a lot of top barns. you may have a $6,000 horse, but a top barn could have a $20,000 horse in that same conditions, so it's very tough to make money.
..... Malinowski has chronicled the industry's plight over the years, including a 2014 paper titled "the State of the New Jersey Horse-racing Industry." In 2010, for instance, there were 298 days of harness racing in the state. This year [2025] there will be just 98 days.
..... "Everything is impacted," she said. "When i first started racing, I raced at Monticello, beaus I had a cheap horse and that's were he was competitive. so every Sunday we'd schleo up to Monticello. That is a three-hour haul, then food and gas and tolls. It's a no-win situation."

Industry facing long odds

..... With no prospect of casino gaming at Freehold Raceway, the track's previous owner, FR Park Racing, did not invest in the facility or racing over the past 25 years, resulting in the demise of one of the state industry's three economic engines, along with Meadowlands and Monmouth Park.
..... The writing has been on the wall for some time.
..... Showplace Farms in Millstone, which had over 400 stalls and a training track was a big loss when it closed in 2015.
..... Through it all, however some still cling to hope that a long shot can emerge.
..... "I have to sit here and say to myself, 'Why am I staying open?' At this moment it almost looks hopeless, right? so why am I going to continue to lose more money on a farm?' " Landy wondered. "The only thing that keeps me going is, 'hey, the Meadowlands can still get a casino, and I still believe that Freehold can sue that track.
..... "I'm going too remain optimistic that the group that brought it - they say no harness racing, but if the governor, the department of Agriculture, if they step up to help, if the state keeps Freehold's purse subside and does other things to benefit horsemen and Freehold Raceway, I have to believe the group that's there is open-minded and might reconsider and take up harness racing, " Landy said. "At the very least they'll have some kind of fair racing season, weekends."
..... But as the landscape continues to shift, the odds of that happening look increasingly lone.

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