The 2014 Breeders
Crown at The Meadowlands will be raced over two nights in November, with the
year-end championships divided into a four-race block of distaff races on Friday, Nov. 21 and the remaining
eight championship races held Saturday, Nov. 22.
The $500,000
Breeders Crown Trot and Pace for 3-year-old fillies, and a pair of $250,000
Crowns for Mare pacers and trotters will be raced on Friday night. All four
$500,000 Two-Year-Old events, the $500,000 sophomore colt pace and trot and the
$400,000 Crown Pace and $500,000 Crown Trot will be raced on Saturday night.
“We are very
proud to bring The Breeders Crown back to The Meadowlands,” said Meadowlands
Chairman Jeff Gural. “Expanding the event to two nights is something I am
very excited about. It creates a weekend of championship racing and gives
us an opportunity to be very innovative with new kinds of wagers, promotions
and an opportunity to make the Breeders Crown experience even better for our
customers.
“The new facility
at Meadowlands Racing & Entertainment offers excellent dining options
including Pink, featuring the highest quality of food and Trotters, an Owners
Club, where owners of horses racing in the Breeders Crown can enjoy elegant
dining in a wonderful atmosphere while watching their horses compete.”
continued Gural.
“Many will take
advantage of our luxurious sky box suites to watch the races. In
addition, fans will be able to enjoy The Breeders Crown in high-definition at
The Meadowlands and can watch the Championship races on massive 12 by 20 foot
high-definition screens in Victory Sports Bar. This will be a Breeders
Crown experience unlike any other.”
Tom Charters,
president of The Hambletonian Society, which owns and administrates the
Breeders Crown series, is familiar with the demands of staging the event at
rotating host tracks, as well as the Society’s flexibility in presenting the
event.
“The Breeders
Crown has been conducted in just about every format – single races, blocks of
races, all 12 races on one night – and we try always to be sensitive to host
track parameters while still getting the most “bang” out of the event in regard
to publicity, TV and promotions,” said Charters.
“The
Meadowlands Racetrack has been home to many of harness racing’s most important
events over the past 30 years,” continued Charters. “We look forward to the
return of the Breeders Crown under Jeff Gural's management and especially look
forward to the new facility. The horsemen of New Jersey and the SBOA of NJ realize the importance of stakes racing in
maintaining the profile of the New Meadowlands and have always been supportive
of our efforts.”
The one-mile oval
in East Rutherford, New Jersey, has hosted 67 Breeders Crown races – more than
any other racetrack and in 2014 will celebrate 30 years of Breeders Crown
history. The Breeders Crown series has crowned champions in every division for
trotters and pacers and has been the deciding factor in Horse of the Year
honors since 1984. More than $164 million in purse money has been disbursed
over 346 events.
