The legalization of sports wagering in New Jersey has triggered a court battle over efforts to open a betting facility at the former Garden State Park racetrack in Cherry Hill.

Garden State Park, where horse racing ended in 2001, is one of five sites in New Jersey, outside Atlantic City, that are permitted to host sports wagering under state law. Plaintiff Cherry Hill Towne Center Partners, the owner of a parcel at Garden State Park that includes the former racetrack oval, seeks to establish an off-track horse wagering facility, sports betting site, or both. But a 1999 restrictive covenant forbids simulcasting, off-track betting or any other wagering run by anyone other than defendant GS Park Racing.