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Horse Racing in New Jersey

The Meadowlands Racetrack (currently referred to as Meadowlands Racing & Entertainment) is a horse racing track at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, NJ, United States. The track hosts both thoroughbred racing and harness racing. 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.

Here is a guide to New Jersey betting on sports online to will help you get on your feet. The online sports betting in New Jersey has been legal for almost a year now. The NJ online sportsbooks allow you to bet on games on their website or through the operator’s mobile app if such feature is available. Therefore, you can enjoy the experience of engaging in NJ online sports betting without having to leave the comfort of your home.

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 thoroughbreds, while the rest of the year features standardbreds, or harness horses.

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.

Monmouth Park, the Meadowlands, and Freehold Raceway will receive purse subsidies in 2019. The money allocated under the new law will go toward enhancing the winnings, or purses, paid out to the highest finishers at races. In general, higher purses means tracks can attract more horses, which in turn leads to more wagering by spectators and more business for the tracks and ancillary workers.

Monmouth Park, the state’s only thoroughbred track, will receive $10 million for purses in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, with the Meadowlands Racetrack and Freehold Raceway, both standardbred tracks, getting $6 million and $1.6 million, respectively. The remaining $2.4 million will go toward breeding programs and other purses.

On June 11, 2018, New Jersey became the third state to legalize sports betting, after Nevada and Delaware, with Gov. Phil Murphy signing the legislation into law. Sports betting in New Jersey began when a sportsbook opened at Monmouth Park Racetrack on June 14, 2018.  Following this, sportsbooks opened at the casinos in Atlantic City and at Meadowlands Racetrack.

In June 2018, Paddy Power Betfair announced that it had partnered with Meadowlands to open a sportsbook at the track, following the state’s legalization of sports betting (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.

In May 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in the case in favor of New Jersey, ruling that the 1992 federal ban on sports betting in most states violated their rights. After the ruling, several states, including New Jersey and Rhode Island, prepared to legalize sports betting.

Live and thrilling standardbred racing at Freehold NJ Raceway was established in 1853. The Freehold Raceway features live standardbred races and thoroughbred racing simulcasts from tracks all over North America.

The raceway is open seven days of the week and the thoroughbred simulcasts schedule can be found here. New to this speed sport? The raceway offers an online betting guide found here and if you can’t experience the race live, just place your bet online or over the phone.

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