'Deal or no deal' at Mighty M

You will be able to find gold in them thar hills in July—actually you will be able to find gold in the Catskill Mountains—as the connections of the winning horse in the $500,000 Monticello Gold Rush for 3-year-old colt pacers will have the option of taking the $250,000 winner’s share in gold bars. The race (elims July 20 and final July 27) is one of several big-money events either being introduced or re-introduced this year at the upstate New York track.

This actually isn’t the first time Monticello has offered the option of taking the cash or taking the gold. The inaugural $250,000 Monticello OTB Classic for 3-year-old pacers in 1975 offered the winning connections the same opportunity.

“We displayed the gold bars which were worth $125,000,” longtime Monticello Raceway publicity director John Manzi told harnessracing.com. “We offered the bars in lieu of the cash for winning the race. They could take the check or take the gold bars, and obviously they took the money.”

The “they” Manzi were referring to were the winning connections of Silk Stockings, who asked for their $125,000 to be given to them in the form of a check. Manzi said looking back it probably wasn’t the best decision.

“If they had taken the gold bars in 1975, they would have been worth $1.6 million only seven years later in 1982,” Manzi said with a laugh. “I’m not sure where the price has gone from there. I’m afraid to look.”

Gold prices in 1975 were about $150 an ounce, which means the gold bars offered to Silk Stockings came to about 833 ounces. Gold prices currently are about $625 an ounce, which means the $250,000 winner’s share in this year’s Gold Rush race comes to about 400 ounces in gold bars. So for Silk Stockings’ owners, those 833 ounces of gold, now worth $625 an ounce, would be worth approximately $520,000.

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