Harness racing’s year-end championship event, the Breeders Crown, will be broadcast to a live television audience on SportsNet New York (SNY) in a pair of one-hour broadcasts on Friday, October 28 and Saturday, October 29.
The broadcasts are scheduled to air from 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. each night. SNY is available to viewers throughout New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania, and nationally on DIRECTV, Verizon FiOS, Comcast Cable and AT&T U-Verse.
The Breeders Crown is the sport’s definitive championship event featuring 12 races with total prize money of $5.8 million. This year’s Crown will be hosted by the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, NJ, which last hosted all 12 races in 2014, and has hosted a record 91 Breeders Crown races since the event’s inception in 1984.
“There is no greater venue in the sport to showcase the championship event than the Meadowlands with our gorgeous facility and proximity to New York City,” said Meadowlands chairman Jeffrey Gural. “We are grateful to our partners at SNY for helping us bring our great sport to the masses and hopeful that New Jersey viewers will support us on Election Day by voting yes to Question 1.”
The races that will be shown on the live broadcasts are still to be determined based on which present the best storylines and most intriguing matchups. Friday’s Breeders Crown card features the four races for older horses while the Saturday card showcases the eight races for two-year-olds and three-year-olds.
“Live television coverage of harness racing’s premier events has always been a top priority of the Hambletonian Society,” said Tom Charters, president of the organization which owns and administers the Breeders Crown series and the Hambletonian. “The Breeders Crown was broadcast on ESPN for 16 years and we’ve made every effort to keep the championship races on TV, with the great support of our host track partner, The Meadowlands.”
The broadcasts will be produced by the Meadowlands Racetrack’s award-winning television department led by Oz Colon and Marjorie Roman. Justin Horowitz will serve as the host of the broadcasts with commentary provided by Meadowlands personalities Sam McKee, Ken Warkentin, Bob “Hollywood” Heyden, and Jenn Bongiorno.
(with files from The Meadowlands)