The Breeders Crown, harness racing’s $7 million year-end series, will race all 12 divisional championship events on the same night at Pocono Downs in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 2010
on November 6 and at Woodbine Racetrack in 2011 on October 29.
The 26-year-old series has typically crowned champions in every division for trotters and pacers and been the deciding factor in Horse of the Year honours.
Pocono Downs will be the 30th host track and the first new venue since Colonial Downs in 1998 to host the series. The five-eighths mile oval will also be the first to stage all 12 events on a single night.
“Thanks to the efforts of the Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen’s Association and Mohegan Sun’s management team, the opportunity to have all 12 races on one night will be possible in 2010,” said Tom Charters, president and CEO of the Hambletonian Society, which owns and services the events.
“It’s something we have wanted to do for many years but could not get the optimum dates and tracks in alignment. The management of Woodbine Entertainment Group has also been an exemplary partner of the series since 1984, and has hosted a 'Crown' event in 24 of our 25-year history.”
Originally conceived and executed in 1984 as a traveling series, the Crown has been hosted by racetracks across North America and raced as single or multiple events, with eight being the maximum number of events any track has staged on a single night.
Since 1998, the Breeders Crown events were divided during the racing season into four races for open horses in late summer and eight for two and three-year-olds in the fall, a format that flourished under a long-term partnership with the Meadowlands in New Jersey and WEG, which hosted the events on a rotating basis.
The existing contract ends with the 2009 events, with the open events to be raced closing week at the Meadowlands on August 21 and the freshman and sophomore races at Woodbine on October 24.
(Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown)