- New Jersey has become the latest state to allow for horse racing to return to action.
- The Meadowlands harness racing will be the first horse race in the state as it is set to return on Friday, June 5.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—Horse racing in New Jersey is officially back and will return to action as soon as Friday.
The Meadowlands race track will be the first to return to action as they will host harness racing on Friday, June 5th.
“I’m proud to announce after weeks of close consultations with our race tracks and our horse breeders, horse racing can resume with the first competitive races as early as next weekend,” said Phil Murphy, Governor of New Jersey.
With this news, residents of New Jersey can expect horse racing odds to be posted on online gambling sites as soon as the first race comes around.
New Jersey is not the first state that horse racing has returned to action. Both Maryland and the neighboring New York have both allowed horse racing to resume.
In Maryland racing returned at Laurel Park while in New York, the first jewel of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, is set to happen on June 20.
During the return, there will be no fans allowed at the race track.
With that being said there will no physical horse race betting which will force all betting to be done from mobile betting applications.
Harness Racing
The news that horse racing is set to return is a huge deal for harness racing that takes place in the state.
Harness racing as a whole brought in a $200 million handle back in 2019 and is looking to recoup its losses from the coronavirus shut down.
It is expected that there will be harness racing every weekend for the remainder of the year with the exception of a few weekends in an effort to try and get back on track.