Haskell's $1.75M purse highest ever in New Jersey outside of Breeders' Cup

OCEANPORT, N.J. -- The real suspense at Thursday’s post-position draw for Sunday’s Haskell Invitational was not where Triple Crown winner American Pharoah would be in the starting gate (post 4, but he has won from the rail in the Preakness on out to post 16 in the Kentucky Derby) or even how many horses would enter (eight, with Zayat Stables’ American Pharoah made the 1-5 favorite in the 1 1/8-mile race).

It was getting the explanation for the Haskell’s $750,000 last-minute purse hike to $1.75 million. What was that about? And why was it not announced until well into Wednesday afternoon?

Dennis Drazin, the personal-injury attorney who is the power broker for New Jersey horsemen, addressed the questions before they could be asked after the draw, noting that the Haskell now carries the highest Thoroughbred purse ever run in the state outside the 2007 Breeders’ Cup at Monmouth and is higher than both the $1.5 million Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

“We see the Haskell as the fourth jewel of the Triple Crown,” he said. “We think making this purse the highest ever in New Jersey is something special. We did this to try to honor the horse. This is about American Pharoah. We thought he deserved it. We have a purse that is higher than the Belmont, higher than the Preakness. We thought this was the right thing to do. We went through a lot of considerations and didn’t make a final decision until (Wednesday).”

Drazin is advisor to the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, which operates the track through Darby Development LLC while leasing Monmouth from the state. He said Monmouth was trying to line up a three-race series that would start with the Haskell and end in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, with a $5 million bonus for the sweep as a way to honor American Pharoah being the first horse to run at Monmouth as a Triple Crown winner.

Monmouth was trying to work something out with tracks that had an existing race in between, specifically Saratoga (Aug. 29 Travers), Parx Racing (Sept. 19 Pennsylvania Derby), Del Mar (Aug. 22) Pacific Classic and Santa Anita (Sept. 26 Awesome Again), the latter two against older horses, he said.

Drazin said he actually got quotes on the premium to insure the bonus, but couldn’t get another track to commit. The Breeders’ Cup also didn’t want to be in the position of seemingly playing favorites by teaming up with certain tracks, and so Monmouth and the middle track would have to fund it alone.

It wasn’t until Wednesday afternoon that it was clear Monmouth had no takers, he said. Instead of taking the money and making some sort of bonus for which only American Pharoah was eligible, the track decided to add it to the purse so that all the horses have a shot at the lion’s share.

“We felt the right thing to do was let everybody share in the purse,” Drazin said. “And making it $1.75 million made it this historic level in New Jersey.”

Drazin said the timing of the announcement was purely coincidental with American Pharoah at that time being in transit from Bob Baffert’s California base. Justin Zayat, who serves as racing manager for his family, said at the draw that he didn’t know about the purse increase until seeing it on Twitter in mid-afternoon.

Meanwhile, Monmouth will pursue creating another $1 million race, probably in September, to try to lure American Pharoah back, Drazin said. He said American Pharoah’s owners, Ahmed Zayat and his family, would be consulted as to the distance (though probably 1 1/8 miles) and date.

Drazin said the $750,000 added to the Haskell purse and the $1 million of a possible second race won’t come out of the share of money earmarked for the track’s regular purses, but rather out of operating expenses.

“It sends a message,” he said. “Now Monmouth Park has turned itself around from days when the governor thought about closing it. Last year we made a profit. We think our future is very rosy here. I think sports betting is just a question of when, not if. I think casino expanding outside Atlantic City will get to the voter’s next year. And though Monmouth Park may not get a casino, it will get a revenue share. We’ll be able to increase our purses, increase our days, increase the industry so that the breeding industry may come back somewhat, we’ll save a $1 billion industry, 13,000 jobs, open space, farm preservation. The legislature, the future governors are paying attention to what we’ve done here at Monmouth Park, and we think it was important to send a message.

“And frankly, American Pharoah helped us do that.”

Drazin said the hope was also to increase the field by a couple of horses with the extra loot. That seemed to happen when Todd Pletcher, who has Competitive Edge in both the Haskell and Saturday’s Jim Dandy at Saratoga, made late entries with Nonna’s Boy and Dontbetwithbruno, the 1-2 finishers in Monmouth’s $60,000 Lamplighter on turf.

Pletcher, however, said in response to a text question that he would have entered all three anyway. As far as which horses will actually run, he said, “I’m not sure what we are doing.”

Meanwhile, Kent Desormeaux, who was taken off his final two mounts Wednesday by the Del Mar stewards for an unspecified reason, has been cleared to ride and will be on Keen Ice in the Haskell.