When Monticello Raceway canceled its live racing card after race five on March 4 it was impossible to imagine that two weeks later the wagering public as well as the horsepeople who depend on the track remaining operational to make a living would still be waiting for the next race to commence. The track located in the Catskill region of New York races year-round and has dealt with its share of weather cancelations in the past, but 2025 has been a nightmare. With a typical racing week of Monday to Thursday, Monticello should have 46 dates in the books as of March 20. The cold, hard reality is only 27 cards have been contested over the half-mile oval which lost three days in January, six in February and 10 in March. Even when the track is closed horses need to be fed, jogged and attended to on a daily basis. And as one of the lowest year-round tracks on the harness racing purse spectrum, owners and trainers hardly have a slush fund sitting in reserve to handle these expenses. That leaves those horsepeople who rely on the track fighting for survival. “It’s absolutely killing them,” said Monticello Harness Horseman’s Association President Alan Schwartz on how his members are handling the situation. “There are a couple of people here and there who race out of town and the horseman’s association is giving all of the horsemen a few bucks to live on but that’s about it for now.” While many tracks tend to deal with thawing issues as the seasons change from winter to spring, and Schwartz mentioned that this change has been worse than normal, Monticello’s problem could be deeper. “I just came in off the track a minute before you called, they’ve been digging inside the pylons, and it looks like they found some type of water main [issue] or something. They have a sump pump there and are pumping the water out. They may’ve found the problem,” said Schwartz, who called the chances of Monticello racing on March 24, its next scheduled date, “questionable” as of the March 18 conversation. [DRF HARNESS: Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter] Every effort is being made to get the track back to racing shape, including calling on outside resources to make the needed repairs. Schwartz said a meeting with track officials and the New York Gaming Commission has resulted in calling on renowned track maintenance experts to make sure the situation is properly rectified in a timely manner. “Supposedly we have the Coon brothers coming here as soon as tomorrow [Wednesday] to find out what the problem is and correct the situation,” said Schwartz, who described the issue with a little more detail. “From the quarter pole until the turn it is like walking on a sponge. The horses just put their hooves right through it. There is no way we could race on it.” With 19 cancelations already, the purse account has been accumulating excess funds. While Monticello’s purses tend to average around $5,000 per race, when multiplied by eight races per card and 19 missed dates, that total is healthy at just over $750,000. “Hopefully we’ll raise the purses immediately and get some of it back to the horsemen,” said Schwartz, who hinted at perhaps having a series for trainers or horses with a certain number of starts at the track to make sure the money goes to those who have missed out on racing. The demise of Freehold Raceway certainly doesn’t make the Monticello situation any better since that would’ve been a somewhat comparable track for the horses to visit and earn some money. That said, the horse population at Monticello really hasn’t increased much despite the New Jersey track’s closure in late December. “Slightly but not a lot, and I’ve been monitoring it. I don’t know where they are going but they aren’t coming here,” said Schwartz. Many Freehold horses have shown up in the lower classes at The Meadowlands and recently so have Monticello regulars in search of an opportunity at some purse money. Five horses with a last past performance line at Monticello were entered at The Meadowlands last weekend and another eight are in-to-go for the March 21 and 22 cards this weekend. For now, most of the horses on the backstretch are playing the waiting game while hoping the Monticello track surface can be properly restored in a hurry and the “Mighty M” can get back on the schedule at 12:10 p.m. (EDT) daily.