from the Meadowlands Media Relations Department

East Rutherford, NJ — Horsemen have responded with their support in the entry box at the Meadowlands and the picture for Saturday’s grand opening now looks less grim.

To get to the advertised number of races, the 13 that are needed to accommodate the $1 million grand prize, it will be necessary to add two more classes.

The Racing Office will now accept entries for C-2 pacers to race for a purse of $9,000 and a pace for 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds that are non-winners of two pari-mutuel races or $15,000 life for a $12,500 purse in addition to the C-1 class (purse $11,000) that was added earlier today.

The existing classes that are still short horses are as follows: A-1, A-2, B-1, B-1 for 3-year-olds and B-2.

“I received several calls of support from the horsemen and I want to apologize if I came on too strong but a lot of work has gone into the New Meadowlands and not having enough horses on opening night is clearly frustrating,” said Jeff Gural. “Obviously we anticipated that we would have some eliminations for the 2-year-old races and that did not happen.”

Saturday’s draw will be conducted Wednesday and the box will be open from 7:30 a.m. until 9 a.m. Please call in your entries for both the existing and added classes to 877.782.2537.