The 2026 Monmouth Park season is here, and the focus will be on quality racing and wagering when fast times return to the Jersey Shore starting on opening day May 9. If you are not familiar with handicapping Monmouth on a day-to-day basis, there is still plenty of time to brush up on what it takes to pick winners now through Sept. 13.

The 50-raceday Monmouth Park 2026 meet will race two days a week on Saturdays and Sundays plus Memorial Day through the end of June and then Fridays will be added during the peak of the meet in July-August. The headline race of the season will be $1 million NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes, which will top a day of six stakes races on July 18. In all, Monmouth Park will feature 36 stakes races worth $5.85 million in purses in purses including nine graded stakes. Haskell Preview Day will be June 13.

Here is a brief handicapping overview for the Monmouth Park 2026 summer race meet. Best of luck and enjoy the season!

Monmouth Main Track Winning Profile

Fans enjoy racing on the Jersey shore. (Bill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO)

Monmouth dirt racing is defined by one predominant factor: Speed. Thanks to a lightning-fast track surface, tight turns, and a relatively short stretch, Monmouth Park very well might be one of the most speed conducive tracks in the country. If you’re betting Monmouth and you want to do well consistently, you must upgrade front-runners and downgrade closers in your handicapping.

The Monmouth Park front-end bias is apparent at all distances on the main track where it’s important to not fall too far back off the pace. If you’re not betting a speed horse, at least try to bet a horse with some tactical speed. In 173 dirt sprints run between 4 ½ furlongs to six furlongs at the 2025 meet, front-runners racing on the pace or within a length of the lead won 99 times to account for 57% of the races. That was even higher than the 44% of 188 dirt sprints won by speed horses back at the 2024 meet. Most of the remaining winners were stalkers between one and four lengths off the pace that won 59 of the 173 dirt sprints in 2025 to account for 34% of the races.

If you are looking for winning closers you should probably look elsewhere other than to Monmouth Park. Late runners coming from four-plus lengths off the pace won only 15 of the 173 dirt sprints in 2025 to account for only 9%. That was even worse than closers’ 32 wins in 188 dirt sprints at the 2024 meet (17%). In 2023, closers were disadvantaged that year too, with 25 wins in 195 dirt sprints to account for only 13% of the races. Post positions are mostly inconsequential.

Speed horses also had good results and late runners also bad results in Monmouth dirt routes run at the 2025 meet. Closers from four or more lengths off the pace won only 14 of the 110 dirt routes in 2025 to account for just 13%. Speed horses on or close to the pace did the best with 65 winners in the 110 races to account for 59% of the dirt route wins. Stalkers won 31 of the 110 races (28%). The 2025 speed bias in dirt routes was even more pronounced than in 2024 when closers won 16% of the 123 races, horses racing on or close to the lead won 36%, and stalkers did the best with wins in 48% of the dirt routes. Post positions in dirt routes slightly favor posts 1-3.

Monmouth Turf Tips and Trends

Turf racing at Monmouth. (Eclipse Sportswire)

The winners of Monmouth’s 103 turf routes in 2025 were fairly evenly distributed at the 2025 meet with speed horses winning 32% of the races, stalkers winning 40%, and closers winning 28%. This is similar to the results from 104 turf routes in 2024 when speed horses won 34%, stalkers won 37% and closers won 29%.

The average field size in Monmouth turf routes in 2025 was 8.46 runners per race. Post positions got less effective the further out you went with 45% of the winners breaking from inside posts 1-3, 37% of the winners breaking from middle posts 4-6, and 18% of the winners breaking from posts 7 and out.

Monmouth turf sprints are all run at five furlongs or 5 ½ furlongs and not surprisingly they tend to be ruled by speed horses. In 68 turf sprints run at Monmouth in 2025, speed horses won 53%, stalkers won 31%, and closers won 16%. Inside, middle, and outside post groupings all won at similar percentages.

Monmouth Park Top Jockeys

Paco Lopez (Ryan Thompson/Coglianese Photo)

Expect 12-time Monmouth Park leading rider Paco Lopez to be the favorite to win his eighth consecutive Monmouth jockey title this year. Last year, Lopez won the title with 86 wins and a big 33% win percentage. Lopez finished 20 wins ahead of the second-leading jockey Samuel Marin who won 66 races (20%), and 39 wins ahead of third-leading rider Samy Camacho who had 47 wins (18%).

Lopez has been consistently dominant at the Monmouth meet in recent years. He rode 76 winners at the 2024 meet (26%) and 76 winners at the 2023 meet. Lopes won the 2026 title despite splitting time later in the meet between Monmouth and Colonial Downs, where he also was leading rider. Lopez expects to follow the same formula for success again this summer.

Marin and Camacho should once again be the second- and third-leading jockeys at the 2026 meet. Some other jockeys who will be in the mix for most wins behind Lopez will also include Sonny Leon, who was fourth-leading Monmouth rider in 2025 with 43 wins (15%). Then there’s Jorge A. Vargas Jr. who was fifth in the 2025 standings with 23 wins (17%). Other regular riders you can expect to see competing daily at Monmouth will include Eric Cancel,Jorge Gonzalez, Gabriel Maldonado, Christian Maragh, Francisco Martinez, Charlie Marquez, Ramon Moya, Luis Rivera, Martina Rojas and Chantal Sutherland. Jomar Torres, who rode 20 winners at the meet in 2024, will be back in the mix as well.

Finally, you will also see some notable veterans visiting the Monmouth Park jock’s room from time to time. Flavien Prat won 5 of his 14 mounts in 2025 and was in the money aboard 13 of 14. Luiz Saez won three races in 2025, as did Monmouth Park legend “Jersey” Joe Bravo, who is a 13-time leading rider at Monmouth Park in his career.

Monmouth Park Leading Trainers

Juan Carlos Avila (Bill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO)

Jorge Delgado won his first career Monmouth Park training title in 2025 when he edged out Chad Brown with 21 winners from 106 starters for 20%. Delgado has 60 stalls on the Monmouth backstretch for this year’s meet and has set his sights on another title this season.

Brown has focused his attention at Monmouth Park to varying degrees in recent years and nearly pulled off the training title in 2025 until coming up one win short with 20 victories from 64 starters with a marvelous win percentage of 31%. Brown had a down year at the Jersey shore in 2024 with a record of 8-for-53 (15%) after having a big season at the 2023 meet with 21 wins from 67 starters for 31%.

Monmouth Park’s third-leading trainer in 2025 was Juan Carlos Avila with 18 wins (29%). He was followed by three trainers tied with 15 wins including Panagiotis Synnefias (16% wins), Chuck Spina (15%), and Silvino Ramirez (17%). Kelly Breen also is annually in the hunt for the training title at Monmouth Park. Breen is coming off a good 2025 season where he won 14 times from 94 starters for 15%. He also finished third in the 2024 standings with 16 wins from 84 starters (19%). Breen has been allotted 49 stalls for the 2026 meet.

More trainers you will be accustomed to seeing in the Monmouth entries with plenty of winners include Kathleen O’Connell (13-for-76, 17% in 2025), Dan Ward (10-for-88, 11%), Lindsay Schultz (7-for-42, 17%), Teresa Pompay (7-for-37, 19%), Kate Demasi (6-for-43, 14%), Anthony Margotta Jr. (7-for-43, 16%), Pat McBurney (12-for-95, 13%), and Mike Dini (13-for-122, 11%). High percentage trainers to watch for based on results from the 2025 meet include Jamie Ness (13-for-48, 27%), Eddie Owens Jr. (10-for-35, 29%), Jose Sanchez (8-for-34, 24%), and Michael Trombetta (6-for-16, 38%)

Todd Pletcher used to maintain a strong annual presence at Monmouth but that dwindled last year when he won just one race from 25 starters. It was a far cry from Pletcher’s 2024 season when won 10 races from 50 starters (20%). From among the NYRA contingent, you also should keep an eye out for horses trained by Miguel Clement who came to town mainly for grass races and posted a 5-for-12 record (42%) in 2025. George Weaver loves Monmouth short turf sprints and went 3-of-9 at the 2025 meet (8-of-9 in the money) after also winning at a high percentage in 2024 with 6 wins from 18 starters. All told, Weaver’s Monmouth record the past two seasons was 9-for-27 (33%).