The Indiana Horse Racing Commission approved Harrah’s Hoosier Park’s 2025 live racing dates during their regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, Oct. 24. Offering 160 days of live harness racing, the 2025 racing season will begin on Friday, March 14 and extend through Saturday, Nov. 29. Harrah’s Hoosier Park will retain its standard post times of 6:15 p.m. on weeknights, and 7:00 p.m. for Saturdays during the 2025 racing season.
The 2025 season will closely mirror that of the 2024 race schedule, with a few minor changes agreed upon between both Harrah’s Hoosier Park and the Indiana Standardbred Association. The March 14 start date is a week prior to that of the opening of the 2024 season. Racing will begin with a two-day (Friday and Saturday) schedule for the first two weeks of the 2025 season, a three-day (Thursday through Saturday) schedule the following two weeks, before beginning a four-day (Wednesday through Saturday) schedule on Wednesday, Apr. 9. From there, the 2025 season will look much like 2024, with a five-day (Tuesday through Saturday) racing schedule from Tuesday, June 24 through Saturday, Oct. 25.
An additional change for the 2025 season is that there will be no racing on Wednesday, Aug. 6 to avoid overlapping with the Grand Circuit racing at the Indiana State Fair Grounds highlighted by the Fox Stake.
Included with the approval of the 2025 race dates was approval for special post times from many of Harrah’s Hoosier Park’s signature race dates. The cards for both the 32nd Dan Patch Stakes (Friday, Aug. 8) and 8th Caesars Trotting Classic (Friday, Sept. 19) will both begin at 6:00 p.m. as they did in 2024. Additionally, Harrah’s Hoosier Park will once again offer a 4:00 p.m. post time on the First Saturday in May (May 3), splitting the card to around the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in efforts to introduce more of the Derby Day crowd to racing at Harrah’s Hoosier Park. Post Time for the two remaining Triple Crown dates (Saturday, May 17 & Saturday, June 7) will be 7:20 p.m.
Stall applications for the 2025 racing season will be made available at a later date and additionally posted on the Harrah’s Hoosier Park website.
(Harrah’s Hoosier Park)