Meadowlands Racetrack - East Rutherford, New Jersey

Address:50 Route 120
East Rutherford, New Jersey

Come spend a day at the Meadowlands Racetrack, one of the East Coast's most prominent horse racing tracks. Located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Meadowlands hosts harness and thoroughbred racing, and is known popularly in the region as "The Big M". The two-track facility hosts some of the nation's most prestigious racing stakes, including the Meadowlands Pace, the Woodrow Wilson, the Stanley Dancer Trot, the New Jersey Classic, the Breeders Crown Trot, and the biggest and most respected stakes event in harness racing, the Hambletonian; the first leg of the Trotting Triple Crown. With its sweeping curves and wide stretches, the "Big M" has been known for exceptional times for harness racing. At Meadowlands Racetrack, the autumn season is dedicated to the thoroughbreds, while the rest of the year features standardbreds, or harness horses. Uniquely, most of the racing at Meadowlands Racetrack is held at night.

Opened in the mid 1970s, Meadowlands Racetrack made its metropolitan debut harness race on September 1, 1976, before an estimated crowd of 42,133, while thoroughbred racing commenced on September 6, 1977. The advertising campaign that accompanied the start of thoroughbred racing at the Meadowlands in 1977 was highly sophisticated and well-received, and was chiefly noted for its use of the song "Racing With The Moon," originally popularized in 1941 by bandleader Vaughn Monroe, alluding to the fact that the racing was to be conducted at night. More recent advertising campaigns have included a direct and catchy approach to attending live racing, taking on the slogan "It's All about Being Here - The Meadowlands."

Like many racecourses in the United States, the main, dirt, track at the Meadowlands has a one-mile circumference, while inside of this is a secondary, turf, course, used by the thoroughbreds only, which is 7 furlongs in length. The middle of the track features a lake, which is supposed to be in the shape of New Jersey, although how closely it resembles the state, is highly debatable.

Meadowlands Racetrack is located conveniently off Route 3 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, within the Meadowlands Sports Complex. This complex also includes Giants Stadium (home of the New York Giants and Jets of the NFL) and the Izod Center (home of the New Jersey Nets NBA team), and general parking is free. New Jersey Transit bus No. 351, which leaves from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, will take you directly to the track for every racing event. For return service to New York, exit the Meadowlands Racetrack through the Grandstand, and walk across Valet Road. Buses depart from the bus stop and shelter area right across from the Grandstand entrance, opposite Lot 5A.