Statement from Jeff Gural on lack of entries

Below is a statement from Meadowlands owner and operator Jeff Gural on this weekend’s harness racing and the rest of the Big M meet.

As you know, this weekend due to the lack of support at the entry box we had to go with seven amateur races, which is an embarrassment, even though our customers like wagering on them for some reason.

You will notice major changes to this week’s condition sheet when it goes online later this weekend. Our plan is to go with short series with two legs and a final, all for increased purses, in the hope that we get more entries.

I apologize for taking so long to make these changes in our racing program, but my buildings are only 40% occupied so I am focused on that.

I want to remind all of you that when the Meadowlands was on the verge of closing I stepped up and built a beautiful brand new facility. Never in a million years did I expect not to be supported by the trainers and drivers.

The first thing everyone said to me when I took over is, “You have to get rid of the drug guys.” I took that to heart and spent over $1.5 million of my own money to put these guys in jail. As you know, three of the biggest criminals, Allard, Banca and Oakes are either in jail or on their way to jail

The fact that we have eliminated the beards does not seem to be helping as apparently you enjoy racing against them at Yonkers, Chester and Pocono. I doubt if any of your owners even go to watch their horses race at those three tracks and would much rather race at the Meadowlands, where we have a beautiful facility and a club for owners that everyone also asked me to include in the design.

I hope to see a major increase this week in entries and for the balance of the year. We intend to limit the number of amateur races to two each week to see if that helps.

I am looking forward to seeing a major improvement beginning next week and hopefully I can count on the industry to do the right thing and support us.

Good luck to those who are going to participate in our major stakes over the remainder of the Championship Meet.

by Jeff Gural, for The Meadowlands