Venerable Freehold Raceway Closing Its Doors At The End Of 2024

Garden State Park, 1943-2001.

Atlantic City Race Course, 1946-2016.

And now, Freehold Raceway, 1854-2024.

With the news on Thursday that the latter historic track would shut its doors forever on Dec. 28 — on top of the closure of the two South Jersey tracks earlier in this century — only the Meadowlands Racetrack and Monmouth Park remain in the state offering harness racing (almost year-round in the former case and thoroughbred racing in the summer in the latter case).

“This was an extremely difficult decision, especially given the historical importance of Freehold Raceway to the local community and the New Jersey horse racing industry,” General Manager Howard Bruno said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the operations of the racetrack cannot continue under existing conditions, and we do not see a plausible way forward. We are incredibly thankful for our dedicated employees, horsemen, and fan base for their support and patronage for so many years.”

Rumors become reality

Monmouth Park operator Dennis Drazin called Thursday “a sad day” for horse racing.

“We had been hearing rumors for a while,” Drazin told Casino Reports. “I feel bad for so many employees who are impacted by this.”

Drazin said that Freehold to an extent operated as a “farm system” in the standardbred industry, giving smaller-scale owners and breeders a chance to try to succeed and perhaps produce horses worthy of moving up to “the major league” Meadowlands Racetrack.

Freehold Borough Mayor Kevin Kane, who spent summers between high school grades as a groom at the track, told The Asbury Park Press that he was “blindsided” by the announcement. Kane expressed hope that a new operator might arise to continue harness racing at the site, but the location’s fate so far is unclear.

Kane added in a statement: “The Raceway has a long and storied history in the Borough of Freehold but, faced with declining interest in standardbred harness racing, the raceway’s fortunes went into a long, slow decline. Management seemed disinterested in promoting or marketing the venue and failed to capitalize on the advent of sports betting in New Jersey.”

The off-track wagering sites in Toms River and Gloucester that had been operated by Freehold Raceway also will shut down at the end of the calendar year.

Freehold has been run for more than 25 years by a partnership of Penn National Gaming and Greenwood Racing, but their modest afternoon schedule of harness races has been dwarfed by the Meadowlands site — considered by many in the standardbred racing community to be the most important harness racing track in the world.

The disparity was reflected in a bill signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy earlier this month that was scheduled to send $10 million annually in each of the next five years to subsidize Monmouth Park horse racing purses, $6 million to the Meadowlands, and $1.6 million to Freehold (plus another $2.4 million to the standardbred industry for other causes).

It was not immediately clear where — if anywhere — Freehold’s share of the subsidy would be redirected.

Freehold’s remarkable history

Freehold Raceway’s roots date back so long ago that pinning down an exact start date is not a simple matter. Horse racing in the borough dates back to the 1830s, while the Monmouth County Agriculture Society was formed to launch the current site’s first meet in 1854.

Financial problems for the society led to the track being shuttered from 1888-1896, and the modern era for Freehold really began in 1941, when the track began featuring betting machines and an infield tote board for parimutuel wagering.

Even the launch of sports betting in New Jersey in 2018 did not prove to be much of a boon for the beleaguered track.

The Meadowlands Racetrack — boosted mainly by its partnership with mobile sports betting behemoth FanDuel — has reported $399 million in gross betting revenue in the first eight months of 2024. Freehold, meanwhile, was able to claim a meager $11 million.

In the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement report issued Monday, it was noted that Freehold Raceway had ceased its sports betting operations on July 31. 

Freehold still is scheduled to race Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through Oct. 12, then Fridays and Saturdays until the end of the year. Post time for each card remains 12:30 p.m. for each racing date.

The surviving two tracks were state-owned until then-Gov. Chris Christie concluded just over a decade ago that there was no point in having the Atlantic City casino industry fund $30 million a year in purse subsidies for the tracks. The latter industry was highly successful until Pennsylvania and New York each opened their first casinos in 2006, resulting in many residents in each state no longer traveling to Atlantic City to conduct their gambling.

The state’s thoroughbred horsemen banded together to run Monmouth Park, while horseman and wealthy New York State real estate developer Jeff Gural took over operations at the Meadowlands Racetrack.