About Monmouth Park

New Jersey’s Monmouth Park is a popular thoroughbred venue famed as much for its horticultural beauty as for its racing, the carefully tended lawns popular with race goers.

The famous $1million Haskell Invitational is run at Monmouth every year which to this day attracts Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup candidates, especially those potentially heading to the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

A traditional venue being almost 150 years old, Monmouth Park sits less than four miles from Monmouth Beach and is less than 90 minutes drive from New York City which opens up the park to a huge fan base of potential horseplayers and day trippers.

Monmouth Park History

Back in 1870 Monmouth Park opened for thoroughbred horse racing but having suffered financial difficulties was forced to close within three years; however by 1882 the track was back in business again.

After only another 11 years there was more trouble following the decision by the state to ban wagering on horses. Monmouth Park was once again closed and this time the land sold off with the future looking pretty bleak.

After a huge gap in time, Monmouth Park was re-opened in 1946 following intense pressure on the state to legalize pari-mutuel betting, which they did in the end with almost 19,000 turning up for the track’s opening day.

In 1950 turf racing was held at the track for the first time and the following year one of Monmouth’s biggest races, the Molly Pitcher Handicap, became the first race ever to be televised in color.

By 1997 Monmouth had reached new heights with that year’s Haskell Invitational day drawing a crowd of over 39,000 who between them wagered almost $10million on the day.

In 2001however the bar was raised once again on Haskell day when a massive crowd of over 47,000 turned up to make the annual attendance at the track over 750,000, figures not seen since 1989.

Today Monmouth Park remains one of the most popular race tracks in the entire country, something befitting its near 150-year history.

Monmouth Park Track Details

The main dirt track at Monmouth is nice and wide at 100 feet. It is a one mile dirt oval topped off with a mixture of silt, clay and loam.

To the inside is the turf course, slightly shorter and narrower at 90 feet and 7/8 of a mile and made up of bluegrass and Manhattan rye grass.

The public get a chance to see the horses in the English Walking ring, a beautiful area of the track.

Biggest Races

United Nations Stakes (Grade 1) – one and 3/8 miles, three-year-olds and older (turf) (July).
Haskell Invitational (Grade 1) – one and 1/8 miles, three-year-olds (July).
Molly Pitcher Stakes (Grade 2) – one and 1/16 miles, three-year-olds and older (July).
Monmouth Cup (Grade 2) – one and 1/16 miles, three-year-olds and older (July).

Place Your Monmouth Park Bets With 4NJBets!

Now you know all about Monmouth, don’t forget you can wager on races there with 4NJBets. Head to our schedules page to check out the latest race times then bet and watch live!

Address

175 Oceanport Ave, Oceanport, NJ 07757, USA

Contact

Bill Knauf (bknauf@monmouthpark.com)