Gural proposes stallion fee to sustain The Meadowlands until a casino arrives

The track owner said he is optimistic a casino could come to the track as early as 2027, but is proposing a new funding model to preserve racing until then.

by Debbie Little

With the 100th Hambletonian just a week away, The Meadowlands’ president and chief executive officer Jeff Gural said he sees a bright future for the track, but is proposing a new plan to help raise money until he can bring a casino to The Big M.

In a release sent out yesterday (July 24), Gural said he was optimistic a casino could open at the track as early as 2027.

But before the jackpots start to pay off, Gural said he’s looking for some specific support to bridge the gap.

“So, I came up with the idea of doing what the Breeders Crown people do because they don’t put any money in,” Gural said. “So, we’re going to basically say, ‘If you want to race at The Meadowlands, you have to nominate your stallion, and to nominate a stallion you have to pay half the stud fee’; only stallions standing for over $5,000. So, most stallions have 120 shareholders, so it really doesn’t cost anybody anything.”

In the release, Gural said he will match 50 per cent of the revenue raised from the plan in the hopes of raising stakes purses by $500,000 by increasing the money added to stakes by the racetrack. There will also be no increase to stakes payments in 2026.

He told HRU that he is unsure how some of the top breeding farms will react to his proposal, since some currently aren’t as supportive as others and already don’t sponsor races at The Meadowlands.

“So, we’ll see what they do,” Gural said. “I have no idea what they’re going to do.”

At least one breeder that HRU knows of is on board with Gural’s plan.

“Diamond Creek is fully supportive and will participate,” said farm president Adam Bowden.

Among their top-notch stallions, Diamond Creek stands Meadowlands Pace champ Confederate, whose first crop, under the Gural rule, would not have been eligible to races like the Meadowlands Pace, but under Gural’s new proposal the stallion’s initial crop would be allowed to race at the track.

A full list of affected races is contained in the release, and just as with Gural’s Stallion Restriction Condition (aka the Gural rule), the Hambletonian, Hambletonian Oaks, and E.T. Gerry Jr. Hambletonian Maturity are not on the list because those events are fully owned by the Hambletonian Society.

Races like the recently-contested Meadowlands Pace are considered stallion makers, and therefore it’s perhaps logical to think that breeders would get on board with Gural’s pay-to-play idea.

Part of Gural’s proposal includes waiving the Gural rule for stallions that are nominated to his new plan.

“I think it comes down to, are there enough people who want to see the sport basically have a future?” Gural said. “I really think that if I can get a casino at The Meadowlands, you’ll see million-dollar races. We’d be able to have a couple of those, in my opinion. And I’d have money to market the place. I really don’t have the money to market The Meadowlands. I tried when we first opened, we spent money for marketing, but, if I have a casino, then that would also bring people to the place. A casino is going to be a draw in itself. I’m a horse guy that happens to be in the casino business, but the other tracks are casino people who happen to be in the harness racing business, and wish they weren’t.”

As for the casino, Gural said getting a state-wide referendum passed that would authorize a casino specifically at The Meadowlands is more promising than the last time it was on the ballot.

“When we had the last referendum in 2015, I was told by the powers that be that it was written in a way that it couldn’t win, and they were just doing it to shut me up,” Gural said. “But it turned out to be a good thing because I learned a lot from that experience, and now, I believe I know exactly what we have to do in order to win that. And I’d be shocked if we don’t get a casino at The Meadowlands to be honest with you.”

Even though the referendum to allow for a casino in Northern New Jersey was soundly defeated 10 years ago, Gural said the fact that New York is set to award as many as three casino licenses in downstate New York makes this a different ballgame.

“It helps immensely,” Gural said. “Let’s hope Yonkers gets one. I can tell you that people will not be happy driving past The Meadowlands to go over the George Washington Bridge, sit in traffic, and pay $18 [toll]. I’m sure that they’ll look at it like this is stupid. Why can’t we put one at The Meadowlands?”

Gural said among the eight applicants vying for a license, he thinks that both Aqueduct and Yonkers have an advantage because they can open quickly.

“I’ve spoken to the governor [Kathy Hochul], and she’s made it clear that that’s very important, because they need the money as quickly as possible,” he said. “So, I think Aqueduct and Yonkers have a big advantage, because anybody else that’s starting from scratch, it’ll take them a couple of years, whereas both Aqueduct and Yonkers have publicly stated they can get open in six months.

“The other reason I’m confident [in getting a casino at The Meadowlands] is that the state [of New Jersey] needs the money desperately, and I have spoken at length to the people in the Assembly and the Senate, along with the two candidates for governor, and they’ve all been very supportive of the idea of putting a casino at The Meadowlands.

“The key is that the referendum has to be only at The Meadowlands, because people don’t want these in their neighborhood. And that was the mistake we made last time. You could have put a casino anywhere in northern New Jersey, so that was a dumb mistake. Plus, all of the revenue that we were going to pay was going to Atlantic City, whereas in New York, [then Governor Andrew] Cuomo and I discussed it before it went on the ballot, and he correctly came up with a formula where basically everyone in the state benefited from the casino legislation.

“So, I think 80 per cent goes to education, but 5 per cent goes to the local town that it’s in, 5 per cent goes to the county, and then 10 per cent goes to the surrounding counties. So, you basically had a reason for people to vote for that referendum, and it passed easily. If you look back, there was almost no opposition.”

According to Gural, the sooner the New York casinos are in operation, the better the chances are for the referendum to pass in New Jersey. And unlike in 2015, he believes the opposition is not going to be in New Jersey, but from New York.

“So, you know, we’re gearing up for a fight with the New York casinos, and they’re all my friends, to be honest with you,” Gural said with a laugh. “We’ll just have to see how that plays out. I guess we’ll know in five months.”

Since horse racing on its own has not proven to be profitable, what’s to stop Gural from getting a casino and ending the racing?

“Because I think that the state wants to see harness racing,” Gural said. “They recognize that there are a lot of jobs at stake, a lot of open space; people like that. I think the politicians would insist on the harness racing.

“I think if they give me a casino, I think I can turn [the racing] around, I really do. The key is, and I’ve said it 100 times, you’ve got to have stars. You’ve got to have horses that people identify with.

“And I intend to significantly increase the purses for these major stakes, if we have a casino. Even now we’re putting in so much money compared to Yonkers or Pocono. Yonkers gets $50 million a year from slots. Think about that.

“They get $50 million a year, and my guess is that their contract provides that they’re allowed to use 10 per cent for stakes, because that’s typically the formula. So, Yonkers gets $50 million, and maybe they use $5 million for stakes, I don’t know, and we get $7 million from the state, and use $10 million for stakes.

“My goal is to maintain the overnight purse account, even though it’s going to cost us money, I think it’s important. And we’ve added 12 days to make up for some of the lost Freehold days. I’m a horse guy. I started going to Yonkers and Roosevelt when I was in high school. I lived 20 minutes from Roosevelt.”

Gural has shown over the years that he’s not afraid to put his money where his mouth is, dipping into his own pocket when necessary.

“It is a lot of money, but between The Meadowlands, Tioga and Vernon, I’ve probably invested $100 million or so, and I’m not that rich, believe me, I’m no billionaire,” Gural said with a laugh. “But I really learned a lot on Meadowlands Pace, when the people who won that race were on cloud nine. A guy was holding his grandson, who the horse was named after, and the trainer was 26 I think, and the driver is 25. We at least should try to give these people a future.

“A lot of the older people seem to have thrown up their hands and they said to me, ‘We’re a dinosaur, it’s just a matter of time,’ and I understand it, but when I was standing in the winner’s circle seeing how happy these people were, I just felt that we’ve got to give it all we’ve got.

“I hope that the industry understands that this is a two-year effort and that we want to be able to show the politicians that the industry is supporting us and not just looking for a handout.”