OCEANPORT - It’s been 37 years. Long years, I might add, and now the state’s thoroughbred landscape is virtually unrecognizable when surveyed against the terrain back in 1980.

When Thanks To Tony, the last Jersey-bred to win the Betfair.com Haskell Invitational, stunned the racing world, it still was called the Monmouth Invitational Handicap, with a $150,000 purse compared to the $1-million, nationally televised event set to go down at Monmouth Park.

After Bruce Springsteen’s "Born to Run" reverberates through the grandstand late Sunday afternoon, Irish War Cry, foaled at Overbrook Farm in Colts Neck and owned by Isabelle de Tomaso, the daughter of Amory Haskell, one of Monmouth Park’s founders, has as good a chance as any state-bred’s ever had to walk into the winner’s circle in the only event in these parts that still resonates throughout the racing world.

The question is whether it really matters.

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Can a victory by Irish War Cry actually have a positive impact on the state’s beleaguered breeding and racing industry, or is it merely window dressing without some quick relief in the form of an alternative revenue stream?

``The only way you’re going to attract horses from outside New Jersey to come to New Jersey is with additional money for the program, for the purses and for more racing days,’’ said Michael Campbell, executive director of the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association of New Jersey. ``Fifty days of racing isn’t really going to attract a lot of people. It doesn’t attract a lot of trainers to come. The backside (at Monmouth Park) is pretty empty right now.

``I think the racing days has a lot to do with that. So I think the only way you’re going to attract people from outside the state to come here is more racing days and more money.’’

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The exposure, however, can help shine a light on the plight of New Jersey racing, like Smarty Jones did for Pennsylvania on the national stage in 2004.

It was an incredible story 37 years ago, though.

Thanks To Tony was a $12,500 purchase by Monmouth County lawyers Andy Zazzali and Don Robinson. He had won the West Long Branch Stakes on the Monmouth Park turf, and trainer Reynaldo Nobles decided to run him back 10 days later in the big race.

At 24-1, Thanks To Tony ran down Superbity, the 3-5 favorite, in the stretch to win by a half-length.

It would be the final race of his career, though, getting injured while training for the Travers. He was sent to stand stud at Due Process Stable in Colts Neck, but a few years later he was struck by lightning in a paddock and killed.

An omen?

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Perhaps.

Back then there were three thoroughbred tracks operating in the state, including the Meadowlands and Atlantic City, and Garden State Park would be rebuilt a few years later as the state enjoyed more than 200 days of racing.

Now there’s just Monmouth Park running 50 days, with a handful of turf racing days at the Meadowlands. And the number of racing days and the amount of purse money keeps shrinking.

Something has to change, whether it’s sports wagering or historical racing or a wake-up call to Trenton legislators about the need to level the playing field with racing operations in neighboring states, flush with cash from slots and casino gaming operations, for the sake of the 13,000 jobs, nearly $1 billion in positive economic impact and open space the industry creates.

Given all that, it’s been a remarkable year so far.

In addition to Irish War Cry, winner of the Holly Bull Stakes and Wood Memorial, both Grade 2 events, Green Gratto won the Grade 1 Carter Handicap, and Sunny Ridge, third in last year’s Haskell, captured the Grade 3 Withers and is coming off a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Brooklyn Invitational.

De Tomaso’s broodmare Irish Sovereign has three progeny poised to run in stakes races on Haskell Day, including Irish Strait, winner of the Grade 3 Red Bank Stakes, in the Grade 2 Monmouth Stakes, and Irish Defence in the John J. Reilly Handicap.

It’s already shaping up as the greatest period for J-breds on the track since the late 1980s, when Open Mind was the 2-year-old champion in 1988, winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, before winning the filly Triple Crown a year later, part of a run of 10 straight wins that included seven Grade 1 victories.

But in 1987 there were 1,252 registered foals in New Jersey. There were less than 100 last year.

According to statistics in The Jockey Club’s annual report on foal crops, there were just 106 registered foals in New Jersey in 2015, compared to 669 in Pennsylvania. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, since Pennsylvania thoroughbred race tracks had purses just under $103 million last year, compared to less than $20 million in New Jersey.

Horses, or more accurately their owners and breeders, follow the money.

So no matter how Irish War Cry runs on Sunday, unless there’s a cash infusion via an alternative revenue stream beyond what Monmouth Park makes selling bets, it's just a nice story. Just like Thanks To Tony's win was 37 years ago.

Stephen Edelson is an Asbury Park Press columnist: sedelson@gannettnj.com