Monmouth Park in New Jersey is the sixth racetrack to be accredited by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Safety and Integrity Alliance.
Monmouth, host of the grade I Haskell Invitational Aug. 2, was reviewed by alliance officials July 9-10. Dr. Ronald Jensen, racing official Richard Lewis, and alliance executive director Mike Ziegler were on the review committee.
“The inspection went very well, with Monmouth surpassing recommended alliance benchmarks in several areas and maintaining best practices in pre-race veterinary inspections and the compilation and maintenance of jockey health information,” Ziegler said in a July 28 statement.
As is customary during the accreditation process, an on-site review at Monmouth included inspections of all facets of the racing facility, and interviews with track executives, racetrack personnel, jockeys, owners, trainers, stewards, regulators, and fans. Monmouth is operated by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.
Other fully-accredited tracks are Belmont Park in New York, Churchill Downs and Keeneland in Kentucky, Delaware Park in Delaware, and Hollywood Park in California. Pimlico Race Course in Maryland received provisional accreditation from the alliance.
Arlington Park in Illinois, Calder Race Course in Florida, Del Mar in California, and Saratoga in New York will undergo an alliance review. All will be open for the next few months, which will allow the inspections to be performed during live racing.