by Tom Kelley, publicity director, Balmoral Park

Crete, IL — With live racing set to resume in about two weeks, Balmoral and Maywood Park have announced the initial qualifying dates and entry times for the Chicago area Standardbred tracks.

Balmoral Park will host qualifiers on Wednesday (Jan. 21) and Wednesday (Jan. 28) at 11 a.m. CST. Entries for these qualifiers will close on the Tuesday before each date at 10 a.m.

Maywood Park will host its qualifiers on Thursday (Jan. 22) at 11 a.m. Entries will close Wednesday (Jan. 21) at 10 a.m.

When live racing resumes at Maywood Park on Thursday (Jan. 29), qualifiers will be held prior to the live race cards every Thursday night.

Horses must show a satisfactory racing line within 45 days in order to race at both tracks.

The first draw will be Monday (Jan. 26) at Maywood for the Thursday (Jan. 29) card and the Friday (Jan. 30) program.

Balmoral Park will draw on Wednesday (Jan. 28) for the Saturday (Jan. 31) card. As a reminder, Balmoral Park will be dark for live racing on Super Bowl Sunday (February 1).

Tentative plans call for Maywood to conduct 10 race cards on Thursdays and 12 races on Fridays. Balmoral will go with 12 race programs on Saturdays and 10 races on Sunday nights.