A truly bad day for N.J.

[richard burch]

This is really one of the saddest days for me and many others. The thought that there may never be horse racing again in New Jersey was something I never thought could happen.

I will never understand how an industry could run for over 30 years and then be given up on so quickly and callously with disregard for people’s jobs and families.

I’ve seen them so many times at the track and they are always courteous and friendly to me. Now they too will join the 10% unemployed people of this state.

The horse farms spread out through central jersey will also take a hit from this incredibly bad decision.

What really gets me is that there doesn’t seem to be anyone fighting to save the industry in N.J. Not even to save themselves or their own jobs. Where is the response from the horse racing industry?

The only one who seems to know what the right thing to do was former Gov. R. Codey. He knows that the slots put in the tracks is the right idea and you will find that most people in northern New Jersey would support the it.

Instead our new Gov. created some puppet panel to research the casino and racing industries knowing full well what the outcome would be. He chose to sink more money into a corrupt, run down city and gambling industry that has 6 out of 11 casinos in bankruptcy. He told us about 38,000 people who would lose their jobs from A.C. but never once mentioned the thousands who work in the racing game that would lose their jobs. Now he wants to invest more into a multi billion dollar disaster named Xanadu that nobody in Bergen County even cares about. (More money down the toilet)

This is the same guy who shook one hand with the people in Monmouth Park and is now stabbing them in the back with the other

Knowing the history of A.C. it isn’t hard to see what happened here again. (Not that I would ever suggest that some criminal element would ever be involved with the N.J. gambling industry)

So here is the question:

What can we do to not let this happen? Is there anything we can do at all?