Live harness racing action returns to Massachusetts on Monday, April 14 at 4 p.m. when Plainridge Park kicks off its 2025 season with the best horses, drivers and trainers from New England who will line up for the next eight months during the meet that runs through Friday, Nov. 29.
The 110-day racing schedule starts with a Monday-Tuesday-Thursday rotation from April until May 30, when Friday is added for five weeks. The schedule then goes back to Monday-Tuesday-Thursday from June 30 through Sept. 25. Then in October, Friday is added again until the end of the year.
The two exceptions include dark days on Tuesday, July 22 due to a Sunday 2 p.m. matinee on July 20 featuring the Spirit of Massachusetts Trot and Thursday, Nov. 27 when the track will be closed in observance of Thanksgiving.
First post time for all race days from April through August is 4 p.m. (except for Sunday, July 20). In September and October, post time rolls back to 2 p.m. and in November, it moves back one more hour to 1 p.m.
The action on the track looks to be as competitive as ever with all the top Plainridge drivers returning this year.
Last year’s co-champion dash drivers Brett Beckwith and Bruce Ranger, who tied for the title with 166 wins apiece, will lead the way with other top five finishers Matty Athearn, Kevin Switzer Jr. and Nick Graffam looking to move up the leaderboard in 2025.
Beckwith, who has become one of the top drivers in North America, was honoured in February at the Dan Patch Awards in Orlando, Florida as the United States Harness Writers Association’s 2024 Rising Star as a result of a career year when he made a great number of his starts at Plainridge. He hasn’t missed a beat this year as he already has 216 wins; that places him third in victories among all North American drivers, and earnings in excess of $1.5 million that puts him seventh for North American driver earnings as well.
Beckwith is currently the runaway leader for dash wins at Saratoga Raceway where he has tallied 136 victories — twice his nearest competitor.
Another notable name that will once again be part of the regular Plainridge driving colony is the legendary New England reinsman, Walter Case Jr., who will be making his first start at The Ridge since 2008. Case was the first North American driver to ever win in excess of 1,000 races in a single year (1,076 in 1998), the first to win 10 races on one card (at Northfield Park in 1999), led all drivers in North America for total wins in 1998, 2001 and 2002 and was named Harness Tracks of America Driver of the Year three times.
For his career, Case boasts a total of 11,484 lifetime wins, placing him 12th on the all-time wins list, while banking more than $46 million in purse money for his connections.
On the training side, Jimmy Nickerson, who has been the leading conditioner at Plainridge Park for the last four years and the first to win over $1 million in purses at Plainridge for three consecutive years, will be looking to defend his title for a fifth straight year on the strength of a large stable of horses who just shipped north after winter training and qualifying in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
His main rival looks to be Melissa Beckwith, who won the Plainridge training title in 2020 and is currently campaigning a large stable at Saratoga Raceway, where she is the top trainer with 61 wins. Her success there so far this year also has her ranked as the fifth leading percentage trainer in North America, boasting a gaudy .504 UTR for her efforts.
Other top trainers from last year, including Domenico Cecere, Gretchen Athearn, Jolene Andrews and Jackie Greene, will also be back to head a long list of other barns ready to go to post.
Besides horses who have raced over the winter at other tracks shipping in for this meet, Plainridge will also benefit from a lot of fresh stock as 121 horses just qualified at The Ridge this past week in preparation for making their first starts of the year during the opening days.
The 2025 meet will be rich in stakes action, including three graded stakes that will make up a total of eight Grand Circuit races with combined purses of $710,000 USD up for grabs.
First on the schedule is the $100,000 USD Paul Revere Open Pace for three-year-olds which will be held on Thursday, May 1. Then on Thursday, May 15, Plainridge hosts the $100,000 USD Battle Of Bunker Hill Open Trot. Both of these races are Grade 3 stakes.
On Sunday, July 20, Plainridge features the Grade 2 $250,000 USD Spirit Of Massachusetts Trot and the Grade 3 $100,000 USD Clara Barton Distaff Pace. Both of these races have rewritten track records several times since their inception and have enticed some of the best Open class competitors from across North America to compete at Plainridge.
Then on Monday, Oct. 13, it’s the Reynolds Stake for three-year-old pacers, which will be contested by gender. The Tar Heel is the $40,000 USD colt and gelding division and The Leta Long is the $40,000 USD fillies division.
Held on the same day, the $40,000 USD Colonial Trot for three-year-old trotters is the companion stake to the Reynolds and will also be contested by gender with the filly division going as the $40,000 USD Colonial Oaks.
The fall classic $3.14 million USD Massachusetts Breeders Stakes start on Monday, Sept. 29 and features three preliminary legs before culminating on Thursday, Oct. 30 when the finals will be contested.
Here is a complete schedule for this year’s Massachusetts Breeders Stakes:
- Monday, Sept. 29, 2025
- two-year-old First Leg - Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025
- three-year-old First Leg - Monday, Oct. 6, 2025
- two-year-old Second Leg - Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025
- three-year-old Second Leg - Monday, October 20, 2025
- two-year-old Third Leg - Tuesday, October 21, 2025
- three-year-old Third Leg - Thursday, October 30, 2025
- two- and three-year-old Finals
The Massachusetts Breeders Stakes races are made possible by the continued support of the Race Horse Development Fund and the local horsemen and women of the Harness Horseman's Association of New England.
This year’s betting menu includes an early and late Daily Double, Exactas and Trifectas available in every race, Superfectas available in every race (except Wicked Hi-5 races), Wicked Hi-5 Pentafecta in the sixth and ninth race, Pick-3 in race three and race six and Pick-4 in race five. Minimum wagers are as follows: Daily Double - $2, Exacta $2, Pick-3 - $1, Pick-4 - $1, Trifecta - $2, Superfecta - 20-cents and Wicked Hi-5 - 20-cents.
Fans will again be able to download free full past performance programs from the Plainridge Park website, where they can also find replays of all the racing action along with more information pertaining to the upcoming meet.
(with files from Plainridge)