Harness Racing Race Tracks
Race Tracks:
Meadowlands Racetrack|
Freehold Raceway|
Woodbine Racetrack|
Mohawk Raceway
Meadowlands Racetrack
The Meadowlands Racetrack is a horse racing track at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The track hosts both thoroughbred racing and harness racing; its first-ever harness race was run on September 1, 1976 while thoroughbred racing commenced on September 6, 1977.
With the exception of the opening season of 1976, the autumn has been dedicated to the thoroughbreds, while the rest of the year features standardbreds, or harness horses.
The Meadowlands Racetrack, including the main building, horse barns and site, was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm of Ewing Cole (now known as Ewing Cole Cherry Brott), who also designed a number of other track facilities around the world.
Freehold Raceway
Freehold Raceway is a half-mile racetrack in Freehold Borough, New Jersey. Established in 1853, it is the oldest half-mile racetrack in the United States.
Freehold Raceway is the home of the Cane Pace, a harness horse race run annually since 1955. In 1956 the race joined with the Little Brown Jug and the Messenger Stakes to become the first leg in the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers.
The Monmouth County Agriculture Society was formed in 1853 to hold an annual fair with harness racing in the Township of Freehold. It has been researched that racing was held at the same site as early as the 1830's.
Woodbine Racetrack
Woodbine Racetrack in the northwestern suburb of Rexdale in Toronto, Ontario is the only horseracing track in North America which stages, or is capable of staging, thoroughbred and standardbred horseracing programs on the same day. It is owned by Woodbine Entertainment Group, formerly the Ontario Jockey Club.
The current Woodbine carries the name originally used by a racetrack which operated in east Toronto, at Queen Street East and Kingston Road, from 1874 through 1993. On June 12, 1956 the name was transferred to the new racetrack; the old track was converted to a combined thoroughbred and standardbred track known thereafter as Old Woodbine or, for most of the rest of its history, as Greenwood Raceway (during standardbred meets) and Greenwood Race Track (during thoroughbred meets).
The two thoroughbred and two standardbred meets conducted there were transferred to the new Woodbine in 1994; it had been exclusively devoted to thoroughbred racing before then.
Mohawk Raceway
Mohawk Raceway is a harness racing track in Campbellville, Ontario. It is owned by the Woodbine Entertainment Group, formerly the Ontario Jockey Club, and is about 30 km west of the company's other racetrack, Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto.
The Mohawk meet begins in mid-June and ends in mid-October. The rest of the year, Woodbine hosts the standardbred action.
The track itself is seven-eighths of a mile in circumference, and is made of crushed limestone. It can accommodate ten starters behind the gate. The homestretch is 1,095 feet long, and the far turn has a larger radius than the clubhouse turn to encourage acceleraion into the homestretch. There is no hubrail.
Mohawk is home to the C$831,000 Canadian Pacing Derby for free-for-all pacers; the $1,000,000 Metro Pace for 2-year old colt and gelding pacers, and the $919,000 Canadian Trotting Classic for 3-year old colt and gelding trotters. Mohawk also has a large slot machine parlour; some of the revenue from this operation is used to increase the horseracing purses.
Horse Racing Tracks in America: