With Christmas and New Year's Eve paring live racing down to just a single weekly card on the next two Saturdays at the Meadowlands Racetrack, a few important details are being announced concerning those cards.

Trainers should note that the entire Saturday, December 26 card will be comprised of races that usually populate the Friday cards, consisting primarily of trots and pacing mare races.

The next week on Saturday, January 2 the card will mirror the usual Saturday fare of overnight pacing races.

Both weeks’ first post will be at 6:35 p.m. and the program will be expanded to 15 races with 11-orse fields drawn in several of those races. Any 11-horse field will result in three per cent of the purse being paid to the sixth-place finisher.

Preference will be given during this period to those horses that have made two starts at the Meadowlands since the 2015 fall meet began on November 13.

"We arrived at these decisions after discussions with the NJ SBOA yesterday and we very much appreciate their cooperation in working with us to accomplish this task," said Meadowlands GM/CEO Jason Settlemoir. "Our intent is to inform the horsemen of what classes will race when so they can prepare appropriately. We're trying to get as many horses raced as possible with so few tracks operating through the holidays and it should prove to be good for the horsemen and our business as well."

First-race post time will go back to 7:00 p.m. when the Meadowlands returns to its normal Friday-Saturday schedule on January 8-9.

(Meadowlands)