Freehold Raceway has become Minor League

[Fredsixties]

Freehold Raceway has become a joke. This is not something that has happened recently. It has progressed over time to the point that it should not be considered anything more than country fair type racing. Horses that race there are low quality and the competitiveness of the racing is almost comical. One recent example was last Saturday afternoon where 9 of the 11 races were won by the number 1 (rail) horse. Most races contested there have only one horse that will leave the gate, so the 1 horse is either first or 2nd around the track in the majority of races. Couple this with the fact that they usually end up racing "indian file" for the first 1/2 to 5/8th of a mile and the results are rather obvious. Purse money is less now than 40 years ago. In my opinion this track should be revamped or closed.

[LVGaryD]

Totally agree, but I never thought it was much of a big league track. Yes the big guns like Herve and Catman drove there, but the place always sucked in my opinion.

[Fredsixties]

In the early and mid 70's (pre-Meadowlands), Freehold hosted a number of major stakes races and the quality of racing was just a shade below Yonkers/Roosevelt Raceway at the time. Often on Saturdays you'd catch a number of the N.Y. drivers in races during the afternoon and then in New York at night. Many of the better quality horses would ship to New York to run after competing successfully at Freehold. Horses from N. Y. would regularly ship down to Freehold to race. Purse money was probably triple what it is now, with the featured race on a Saturday usually for a purse of between $15 and 20K and most purses of at least $5-6K even for the lower classes. Their current structure for a Saturday feature race is now less than $6K with a number of lower class races in the $3K range.

[LVGaryD]

I remember the 60s and early 70s at Freehold. However, Garden State was and always will be my favorite place to race in NJ.

[Fredsixties]

Both those tracks were much better before they were rebuilt..