The Meadowlands Racetrack (currently referred to as Meadowlands Racing & Entertainment) is a

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

track at the

Meadowlands Sports Complex The Meadowlands Sports Complex is a sports complex located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. The facility is owned and operated by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA). It is named for the New Jersey Meadowlands ...

in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. The track hosts both

thoroughbred racing Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing in ...

and

harness racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Australia ...

. It is known popularly in the region as "The Big M". Meadowlands has year-round horse racing as well as a number of bars and restaurants.

History

Opened in the mid-1970s, Meadowlands Racetrack held its first-ever harness race on September 1, 1976, while thoroughbred racing commenced on September 6, 1977. With the exception of the opening season of 1976, autumn has been dedicated to the

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a list of horse breeds, horse breed developed for Thoroughbred racing, horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thorough ...

s, while the rest of the year features

standardbred The Standardbred is an American horse breed best known for its ability in harness racing where they compete at either a trot or pace. Developed in North America, the Standardbred is recognized worldwide, and the breed can trace its bloodline ...

s, or harness horses. The advertising campaign that accompanied the start of thoroughbred racing at the Meadowlands in 1977 was noted for its use of the slogan "Racing with the Moon", originally popularized in 1941 by bandleader

Vaughn Monroe Vaughn Wilton Monroe (October 7, 1911 – May 21, 1973) was an American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader who was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for recording and another f ...

(alluding to the fact that post-time is in the evening – a circumstance that still pertains, although afternoon programs during long holiday weekends are occasionally put on). More recent advertising campaigns have included a direct and catchy approach to attending live racing: "It's All About Being Here – The Meadowlands!" With its sweeping curves and wide stretches, the "Big M" has been known for exceptional times for harness racing. Opening night at the track featured the fastest harness mile run in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

to that time, 1:55 by Rambling Willie. The world record for a mile by a standardbred, 1:46 by Lather Up, driven by Montrell Teague in the 2019 Graduate, matched Always B Miki's time at the Red Mile in Lexington. In 2023, Confederate set a new world record with a mile in 1:46.1 seconds. The Meadowlands Racetrack has been the site of the Hambletonian, the first leg of the Trotting Triple Crown, since 1981. It has also been home to the Cane Pace, the first leg of Harness Racing's Pacing Triple Crown since 2015 with the Cane run on the same program as the Hambletonian. Leading drivers in recent seasons have included Ron Pierce, Brian Sears, George Brennan, and Tim Tetrick. The track is operated by New Meadowlands Racetrack LLC with Jeff Gural as its CEO and chairman. Gural took over operations of the Meadowlands in December 2011. Ken Warkentin is the current race caller and announcer for the standardbred Meadowlands meets. Matt Dinerman currently calls the thoroughbred meet. Sam McKee was also the track announcer until he suffered a stroke days after calling what no one knew at the time would be the last card he ever would call on January 21, 2017, and he died on March 7, 2017. Veteran sportscaster Dave Johnson, was the track's lead public-address announcer from its opening until the early 2000s. In July 2009, the Meadowlands Rail Line opened for event service, but is expected to run daily upon completion of the nearby

American Dream Meadowlands American Dream is a large retail and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, New Jersey, and is the second largest mall in the United Sta ...

. Speedway Motorsports, the Marcus Smith-headed company that owns motor racing venues founded by his father, has long had his sights on Meadowlands Racetrack for possible conversion into a short track venue for

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

events in the New York City area. His most recent of several attempts to purchase the track failed in the late 1990s. A report issued in January 2010 by New Jersey Governor

Chris Christie Christopher James Christie (born September 6, 1962) is an American politician and former United States Attorney, federal prosecutor who served as the 55th governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party (United States) ...

discussed the idea of closing the Meadowlands Racetrack and selling it for commercial development or converting it into a NASCAR facility. Governor Christie has considered selling or leasing the racetrack to a private operator or closing it altogether. The

New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) is an independent authority established by the State of New Jersey in 1971 to oversee the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Originally consisting of Giants Stadium and the Meadowlands Racetrack in ...

privatized the racetrack, to

Jeffrey Gural Jeffrey Gural (born July 6, 1942) is a New York real estate developer. Early life and education Gural was born to Jewish American real estate developer Aaron Gural and Harriet Feil. His mother died in 1945. His father was part owner of Newmar ...

Newmark Knight Frank Newmark Group Inc. is a global commercial real estate advisory and services firm headquartered in New York City. It operates as ''Newmark'', and is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "NMRK". The company’s services incl ...

in December 2011. The privatization included $110 million of improvements consisting of a new 2,250-seat grandstand and clubhouse, designed by CGL Architects, built on the site of the former

backstretch Backstretch refers to either: (1) the portion of an oval racetrack on the far side of the grandstand, parallel to the homestretch, or, (2) particularly in North America, the area near the racetrack where horses are stabled and the daily work of mai ...

. The existing grandstand was used as an event space for

Super Bowl XLVIII Super Bowl XLVIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion 2013 Denver Broncos season, Denver Broncos and National Football Conference (NFC) champion 2013 Seattle Seahawks season, Seattle Seahawks to ...

. The old Meadowlands grandstand closed for racing on November 2, 2013. The new grandstand, which cost $110 million to build and can seat 2,200, opened for racing on November 23, 2013, with an estimated crowd of 15,000 in attendance. Demolition of the old Meadowlands grandstand occurred in 2022 after hosting the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA)

Information technology (IT) Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

hub and

New Jersey State Police The New Jersey State Police (NJSP) is the official state police force of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a general-powers police agency with statewide jurisdiction, designated by troop sectors. History The legislation for the creation o ...

infrastructure for several years. The Meadowlands was announced to host the championship final for the 2018 AMA Pro American Flat Track Championship motorcycle racing series, scheduled for October 6. The event, to be designated as the Meadowlands Mile, joins Turf Paradise, The Red Mile, Remington Park, and Canterbury Park as horse racing tracks that will run the series in 2018. In June 2018, Paddy Power Betfair announced that it had partnered with Meadowlands to open a

sportsbook A sportsbook is a venue where a gambler can wager on various sports competitions, such as golf, football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, soccer, horse racing, greyhound racing, boxing, and mixed martial arts. The method of betting varies wit ...

at the track, following the state's legalization of

sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. Sports bettors place their wagers either legally, through a sportsbook or bookmaker (colloquially known as "bookies"), or illegally through priva ...

(as facilitated by the result of '' Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association''). The sportsbook opened on July 14, 2018, under the branding of FanDuel, a daily fantasy sports service recently acquired by the company.

Physical attributes

Like many racecourses in the United States, the main (dirt) track at the Meadowlands has a circumference; inside of this is a turf course (used by the thoroughbreds only) which is . With a span of exactly from the top of the stretch to the finish line and a distance of exactly from the finish line to the beginning of the first (clubhouse) turn, the dimensions of the track are considered "typical" or "standard" for an American racetrack. The main track is wide, while the width of the turf course is . The track is equipped to race at night and most of its races are at night. In the middle of the track is a lake, intended to resemble the state of New Jersey. The old grandstand, horse barns and site, was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm of EwingCole (now known as Ewing Cole Cherry Brott), who also designed a number of other track facilities around the world as well as

Citizens Bank Park Citizens Bank Park is a baseball stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the city's South Philadelphia Sports Complex. Home to Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies, the stadium opened April 3, 2004. It is named after Citizens Financi ...

in Philadelphia (with Populous). The new grandstand opened for simulcasting on Monday, November 18, 2013. The official unveiling of the new grandstand was on November 23, 2013, for first night of live fall harness racing. The collaborative production by managing partner Jeff Gural and The Hard Rock spans 180,000 square feet across four floors and includes a track apron that holds up to 10,000 people. Notable drivers in attendance included John Campbell, Yannick Gingras, Scott Zeron and Tim Tetrick. Famed pacer Gallo Blue Chip kicked off the racing action with a ribbon cutting ceremony across the finish line.

Accessibility and transportation

Like the rest of the sports complex, Meadowlands Racetrack is accessible via Exit 16W on the western spur of the

New Jersey Turnpike The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highway, controlled-access toll roads in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although ma ...

(

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...

) which is located adjacent to NJ Route 3 and NJ Route 120.

NJ Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. I ...

provides bus service on the 160 from the

Port Authority Bus Terminal The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus station, bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving ab ...

and the 703 on the Haledon/Paterson/East Rutherford route. NJ Transit also provides rail service on the Meadowlands Rail Line at the

Meadowlands station Meadowlands station (also known as Meadowlands Sports Complex station) is a New Jersey Transit train station that is the western terminus for the Meadowlands Rail Line located at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. ...

Racing

Up until the 1990s, The Meadowlands held these thoroughbred stakes races, some of which were moved to Monmouth Park: * Grade III – Meadowlands Cup * Grade III – Cliff Hanger Stakes * Grade III –

Pegasus Stakes The Pegasus Stakes is a Listed American Thoroughbred horse race run annually in June at Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, New Jersey. An event for three-year-olds of either gender, it is contested at a mile and a sixteenth (eight and a half ...

* Grade III – Violet Handicap * former Grade III – Morven Stakes From November until the first Saturday of August, in addition to the Hambletonian and Meadowlands Pace, the Meadowlands Racetrack also hosts a variety of other stakes races for standardbreds: * Super Bowl (discontinued) * Escort (discontinued) * Worldly Beauty (discontinued) * Charles Singer Memorial (discontinued) * Burning Point (discontinued) * Sonsam (discontinued) * William "Buddy" Gilmour (discontinued) * Shiaway St. Pat (discontinued) * Clyde Hirt Stakes (discontinued) * Reynolds Series * Simpson Series * Giant Victory (discontinued) * Artistic Vision (discontinued) * Whata Baron (discontinued) * New Jersey Sire Series * Graduate Pace & Trot * Miss Versatility * Golden Girls * Del Miller Memorial Trot * Mistletoe Shalee * Stanley Dancer Memorial * William R. Haughton Memorial * Miss New Jersey * New Jersey Classic * Ima Lula (discontinued) * Duenna * Townsend Ackerman * Shady Daisy * Fresh Yankee * Lady Liberty * Sam McKee Memorial (formerly known as U.S. Pacing Championship) * John Cashman Jr. Memorial * Jim Doherty Memorial (formerly known as Merrie Annabelle) * Peter Haughton Memorial * Cane Pace * Hambletonian Oaks * Continental Victory (discontinued) * TVG Free For All Series * Tarpot Hap * The Three Diamonds * The Goldsmith Maid * The Valley Victory * The Governor's Cup

References

External links