New Jersey Voters OK Sunday Racing : Racing: Another measure will allow tracks to simulcast to Atlantic City casinos.

New Jersey voters have approved referendums to allow Sunday horse racing and the simulcasting of races to Atlantic City casinos.

Leaders of the $2-billion-a-year industry said the initiatives will allow New Jersey’s five race tracks to be competitive with neighboring states for the entertainment dollar and will protect the jobs of about 30,000 people.

New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland allow Sunday racing, as do 37 of 38 states. Alabama is the only state that does not.

Voters in New Jersey approved the Sunday racing referendum by a margin of almost 200,000 votes and supported casino simulcasting by a little more than 100,000 votes.

“I attribute the victory to the people’s ability to focus on the clear message that Sunday racing and casino simulcasting were questions of economic fairness, job protection and creation,” said Robert E. Mulcahy, president and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.

The authority owns the Meadowlands Racetrack here and Monmouth Park in Oceanport.

Sunday racing most likely will not become effective until next year because it will take 45 days for the vote to become official, said Frank Zanzuccki, assistant director of the state racing commission.

The only track that could open for Sunday racing this year would be Freehold Raceway, but officials would have to make a special application to the commission, Zanzuccki said.

Casino simulcasting is about a year away, since the referendum simply cleared the way for legislation making it a possibility, Mulcahy said.

There is still a battle to be waged over who would run casino gambling on races--the Casino Control Commission or the State Racing Commission--and how the profits would be split among the casinos, tracks and horsemen.

The leaders of the state’s tracks plan to meet next week to discuss how best to implement Sunday racing. Tracks will apply to the racing commission for racing dates later this month.

Mulcahy and Robert J. Quigley, president of Garden State Park in Cherry Hill, said they would seek Sunday dates for their tracks. Mulcahy said the Meadowlands was formulating a racing plan, but would not comment on it.

“It is important to note that these initiatives are not a panacea for all the ills of racing,” Mulcahy said at a news conference at the Meadowlands. “They give us a good start.”

The racing industry spent almost $450,000 campaigning for the passage of the referendums.

The measures stipulate that a track may only race on six days per week--so any track that chose to race on Sundays must close on one other day.