from Freehold Raceway

Freehold, NJ — Freehold Raceway has cancelled qualifiers scheduled for Thursday (August 23).

The decision was made after the track received a letter Wednesday from an attorney representing the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association of New Jersey which cited concerns regarding track conditions.

Freehold Management received the letter Wednesday citing “unsafe and dangerous” racing surface conditions.

”We disagree with the SBOANJ’s assessment of the condition of the racetrack, however, the safety of our racing participants is our highest priority and due to the serious nature of these claims, we advised the SBOANJ that we had no other choice but to cancel qualifiers scheduled for tomorrow,” said General Manager Howard Bruno. “We do question the timing of the letter as there have been no site visits made by any member of the SBOANJ since we closed in May and we had a very uneventful live racing season earlier this year as it related to our racing surface.”

Freehold is scheduled to reopen for live racing on Thursday (August 30).