Why? New Jersey "is no longer competitive" in the horse-racing industry, Perretti said.
"If the public wants horse farms and open space, then it has to have a business model that supports them," he said. "The one we have doesn't work anymore."
With New Jersey racing offering smaller purses - the portion of on- and off-track revenue shared by owners of winning horses - farm owners and breeders have begun to sell or to relocate their operations to states that provide a stable source of revenue. Dozens of farms are on the market.
The biggest reason is the shrinking incentive paid to owners of horses bred and born in-state, known as the New Jersey Sire Stakes.
In New Jersey, that incentive dropped from $7.5 million in 2007 to $6.2 million last year. The award increased from $4.1 million to $12.7 million in Pennsylvania and from $15.1 million to $19.5 million in New York during the period, according to a report released this spring by the Rutgers Equine Science Center in New Brunswick.
Originally, "we had the strongest and best [sire] purse structure," said the center's director, Karyn Malinowski. Track "attendance was high, so betting was up."
Without an infusion of money from other forms of gambling - slot machines, video lottery terminals, more off-track betting - to make the purse attractive, the number of New Jersey horses registered for sire stakes has decreased from 1,023 in 2003 to 774 last year, the report said.
In neighboring states, the number grew substantially during the period - from 672 to 1,064 in New York and 1,250 to 1,700 in Pennsylvania, the report said.
