Meadowlands releases final meet numbers

August 21, 2007

The 2007 Meadowlands January-August harness meet ended on a high note with a strong Hambletonian Day, despite an overall downward trend in attendance and handle, most notably that total on-track handle fell by 25 percent.

Originally scheduled for 138 days, the meet was cut by nine Wednesdays, from March through May, due to a shortage of horses. Five additional cards were lost, whole or in part, to inclement weather and an electrical outage, reducing the meet to 125 dates.

The shortened meet suffered from reductions in horses raced, 12,045 versus 14,522 in 2006, and races carded, 1,369 versus 1,604. The number of races contested with full fields [10 horses] also dropped nearly 34 percent to 480 during the seven-month meet, down 245 from the total of 725 full fields carded in 2006.

Those factors contributed to significant declines in handle.

Total on-track handle fell by $18.9 milllion, a 25 percent drop from $75,756,021 in 2006 to $56,848,635 in 2007. The average on-track handle was down 18 percent, from $556,697 per card in 2006 to $454,789 per card in 2007. The total handle dropped 17 percent from $395,523,135 the previous year to $327,119,817. The average daily total handle fell nearly 10 percent, from $2,906,273 to $2,616,959.

Daily live attendance averaged 3,786, down 8.5 percent from the 2006 meet [which ran 136 dates]. On-site attendance [live and simulcast combined] averaged 5,580.

Despite the overall downward trend, the Meadowlands continued its reign as host of the sport's biggest days.The 2007 Hambletonian Day card produced a total handle of $8,219,779, the third highest in harness racing history. The figure represented a 1.5 percent increase over the 2006 Hambletonian Day handle of $8,069,924. [The all-time high of $9,015,019 was set in 2005].

The total handle on the Hambletonian race itself, won by Donato Hanover, was $1,622,786, the most money ever bet on a single harness race.

Brian Sears dominated the January-August driver standings, capturing his third straight driving title with 238 wins; a comfortable margin of 60 wins over runner-up Ron Pierce. Sears also led the standings in earnings with $6,222,108. Highlights of Sears' season included victories in the Peter Haughton Memorial with Blue York Yankee and the Graduate with Lis Mara.

Ross Croghan repeated as leading trainer, giving him his fourth Meadowlands title [1999, 2000, 2006 and 2007]. Croghan, a 54-year-old Australian native topped the standings with 68 wins and $2,027,670 in earnings. Croghan campaigned a powerful mix of overnight and stakes horses, headlined by Corleone Kosmos, who gave the trainer his biggest paycheck of the meet in the $300,000 Nat Ray on Hambletonian Day.

Larry Baron claimed his first Meadowlands Leading Owner title, sending out 25 winners. Among the top performers he co-owned was The Quiet Mon, who finished second in the $225,000 Berry's Creek.

There were 382 claims during the meet, which totaled $11,975,718 and yielded $452,102 in sales tax for the State of New Jersey. The number of claims marked a decrease of 25 percent over the previous season.

Harness racing returns on November 16 for a 23-night fall meet highlighted by the Breeders Crown championships for 2 and 3 year olds. (Meadowlands press release)

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