Though, thinking outside the box can be hampered by an archaic system.

by Debbie Little

Thanks to suggestions made both by members of the press and their loyal customers, The Meadowlands is thinking outside the box to put more fans in the stands.

Meadowlands chief operating officer/general manager Jason Settlemoir said that he and track president/chief executive officer Jeff Gural have always been open to suggestions.

“Jeff and I don’t have an issue with trying anything new; I think everybody realizes that,” Settlemoir said. “Since 2006 at Tioga and Vernon, we’ve been trying new things and carried that here to The Meadowlands.

“We try just about anything that makes any type of sense, kind of like throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks, and sometimes even circle back to things again.”

One of the ideas that was shared from a customer was naming the Graduate Series finals after the late, great Stan Bergstein, but more about that in next week’s column.

“I always enjoy talking to my customers through email, so, they can always email me and you can put my email address in there [jsettlemoir@playmeadowlands.com], because, you know, sometimes we don’t think about something and when somebody sends it to us, it just kind of dawns on us and you say, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that we never thought of this before.’

“There is nothing more precious to me than an on-track customer or an off-track customer.

“So, there are a lot of great ideas that are out there that never get explored because they’re not sent by the customers that are out there with them, and listen, I mean, if it’s a good idea, we’ll give it a try.”

In a February column in HRU, a lively discussion was had between John Campbell and Dave Briggs about post drag and computer-assisted wagering (CAW).

The Meadowlands has already addressed the former, and according to Settlemoir, is working on the latter.

Settlemoir was quick to point out that unlike eliminating the drag for their Championship Meet, which starts in May, stopping the CAWs from wagering in the win pool once they hit two minutes to post, and thus preventing those dramatic shifts in odds, is complicated and there are regulatory hang-ups as well as tote hang-ups.

“I’m working on it daily with the tote company and the New Jersey Racing Commission in order to make this go forward,” Settlemoir said. “We’re trying the same thing that NYRA had tried having the CAWs come out at two minutes until post time.

“At some point in time, we will be able to roll it out. Whether I’m going to be able to hit Friday (May 2), along with the on-time post time or not, I’m uncertain just for the simple fact that everything’s moving slowly for some reason. When it comes to things like this in our industry, the old adage goes, it’s tough to do these types of things because it requires outside-the-box thinking, and requires different types of rules to be in place and changed, and computer systems updated, and quite honestly, the industry can be archaic when it comes to those kind of things.”

In Bob Duff’s March 7 column, he wrote about revamping the harness racing betting handbook and one of his ideas was about taking bets on which horse in a race will win each quarter.

According to Settlemoir, they are looking at taking wagers on who will be the on the lead at the half, but just like with the CAWs, it’s complicated.

“So, we’re trying to get some answers out of the New Jersey Racing Commission of how we need to steer that forward and whether or not that needs legislative help,” Settlemoir said. “Everything has to be approved by the racing commission and depending on some of the things, it has to be approved by the Division of Gaming, too.

“A lot of people have great ideas and sometimes some of them take more work than others, and I’m not opposed to the work, but I want people to also realize that when you start talking about legislative changes and things like that, those types of things can take months and or years to accomplish.”

Settlemoir said that horsemen have also sent suggestions.

“Eric Cherry sends me ideas all the time,” Settlemoir said. “Eric’s a brilliant person, and you know, I like listening to his ideas and some of them I’ve said, ‘Why can’t we try this?’ And then you take it to the racing commission and the racing commission says ‘No, you can’t do this because this is the way the rule was written,’ and then you’ve got to change the legislation.

“Take, for example, I’ve always been a proponent of not showing the odds to the drivers on the infield tote board and on our broadcast.

“So, I had taken that to the racing commission saying, ‘Listen, inside the building and in our simulcast, we are showing the odds to our customers and everybody that is watching, but on the outside, I want to eliminate the tote board, and I want to eliminate the jumbo screen, so [the drivers] can’t see the odds on the horses,’ and they told me that I couldn’t do that because legislatively or by rule, it must be broadcast in the same form throughout the facility and no other forms of it can take place. So, anything I show on my TVs has to be displayed outside as well.”

There are also other promotions currently going on at The Big M for Players Rewards members, the details of which can be found on their website.

“I think one of the things you have to do is provide a value to people and look, I mean, horse racing can be relatively cheap at The Meadowlands,” Settlemoir said. “We have all these neat little promotions that we do in the summertime, and you’re starting to see some of those pop up here in the spring because, naturally, I want to be ahead of the curve just a little bit to see how we do. But, our focus, obviously, is on driving on-track handle and revenue.”

Settlemoir said The Big M has “seen a little bit of an uptick this year in the on-track handle, but nothing to set the world on fire.”

With everything they are doing for their on-track customers, Settlemoir is remaining optimistic for the year.

“I need our owners and trainers to continue to support our entry box,” Settlemoir said. “And I need our drivers to close the holes in the first turn, no half-in, half-out down the backside or on the turns, and no move-overs at the top of the stretch, and to use the whip appropriately, and just continuing to be professionals while on the racetrack, making sure that the product that we’re putting out there for our customers is what it has always been, and that’s the top product in the industry. Without a doubt, The Meadowlands continues to be the top harness track by not only just off-track handle, but on-track handle as well.

“We rightfully still control Friday and Saturday nights in the simulcast market and that hasn’t happened just by accident. That’s happened by design over several years and it took a lot of time to get to that, but we’ve been there for the last couple of years and I expect us to continue to hold that mantle for the rest of time.”

Note: On Saturday (March 29), The Meadowlands fourth race was a tribute to Hunter Myers, where both The Meadowlands and SBOANJ pledged to donate their net revenue share to Hunter’s fiancée, Chloe Fisher, and son, Hayden Myers, with Jeff Gural pledging to match the total share which came in a hair under $250,000 so far. But in an effort to raise as much as possible for Myers’ family, The Meadowlands again thought outside the box.

“I had Andrew [Demsky, the regional director of racing at Tioga and Vernon Downs] send out an email at Jeff’s direction, asking the simulcast outlets to send their portions as well that they made for the fourth race, and to have it postmarked by April 15th, and I have received a couple of emails already,” Settlemoir said.

Online wagering service Day At The Track as well as Woodbine Entertainment have already contacted The Meadowlands and are cutting checks and Settlemoir is hopeful that more of their simulcast partners will reach out by the April 15^th deadline.