After a nine-week hiatus that began at the conclusion of a highly successful Hambletonian Day, live harness racing will return to the Meadowlands on Friday night (Oct. 11).
During October and November, live action will be conducted on Fridays and Saturdays. December will see Thursdays added to the schedule. All live harness programs will have a post time of 7:15 p.m.
There will be special racing ‘doubleheaders’ during October, as Monmouth Park will conduct turf racing on the Meadowlands’ grass course. Racing fans can make it a full day at the Big M on October 11, 12, 18, 25 and 26, as the Thoroughbreds will be in action with a 12:30 p.m. post before harness racing in the evening.
There will be plenty of stakes action during the Big M’s 2019 fall meeting, as two-year-olds will be in action in the Kindergarten Series. Preliminaries are slated for the first three weekends of the meet before four big-money finals – with purses totalling more than $700,000 – take place on November 2.
The action will heat up even more on November 16, with eliminations for the Goldsmith Maid (two-year-old filly trot), Three Diamonds (two-year-old filly pace), Valley Victory (two-year-old colt trot) and Governor’s Cup (two-year-old colt pace) before the biggest night of the fall takes place one week later with the finals for those four events – with purses in excess of $1.75 million – as well as the finals for four other huge contests, featuring some of the biggest equine stars in the game.
The TVG Mare Trot (for a purse of $175,000), TVG Mare Pace ($175,000), TVG Open Trot ($350,000) and TVG Open Pace ($350,000) will also be offered on ‘Fall Final Four’ Night on Nov. 23. Racing fans may recall the 2018 TVG Open Pace, which resulted in a dominant 1:48 score by McWicked to lock up Horse of the Year honours.
(With files from the Meadowlands Racetrack)