Monmouth plays hero; Magna acts like zero

Two premier American race meets — Monmouth Park and Oak Tree — made headlines this week for vastly different reasons.

Monmouth begins a history-making meet Saturday: 50 days of racing worth $50 million in purses. Imagine Keeneland times two for money and quality of racing. The lowest purse at Monmouth will be $30,000 for $5,000 claimers going six furlongs. First-level allowance horses will compete for $80,000. These are staggering sums.

No wonder the nation’s best jockeys and trainers will be regulars at Monmouth this summer. While their vote is important, the key will be the support of horseplayers.

For years, horseplayers have said they want to bet races of quality and with a quantity of runners. Monmouth will be offering just that. So now it’s time for us bettors to put up or shut up. If the handle at the track on the Jersey shore does not grow by 20 percent or more, it will be a bad sign for the racing industry.

I wish Monmouth had implemented one change I suggested: lowering the takeout on win, place and show bets to 10 percent. Increasing straight betting is desirable because it creates the kind of churn that racetracks want — that is, people cashing a lot of tickets, then betting it right back.

The Oak Tree story is a true nightmare. In short, for its fall meet, Oak Tree Racing leases Santa Anita from landlord Magna. But Magna has voided a signed lease, which was good through 2016, and wants to renegotiate the terms with Oak Tree.

Now, I’m no Warren Buffett, but I know that if you try to renegotiate a deal, you better be doing it from strength. As soon as Magna tore up a valid contract, Del Mar and Hollywood expressed great interest in hosting the Oak Tree meet. Hollywood even offered its racetrack rent free.

Isn’t Magna dumb to ask Oak Tree for more when Oak Tree already has two outs? Where is the leverage? And what makes it seem unscrupulous is Oak Tree is a nonprofit association. Any money it makes is donated to charities and public-service organizations. In essence, by demanding more money from Oak Tree, Magna would be taking it from charitable organizations. That won’t play well in the court of public opinion.

It’s easy to spot the good guys from the bad guys. Monmouth is taking a great risk that most in racing wouldn’t dare try. And Magna is doing a huge disservice to racing, period.

Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.