by Tom Kelley, publicity director, Balmoral Park

Crete, IL — With a new 16-month contract with the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association in place, both Maywood Park and Balmoral Park will begin their 2014 racing seasons starting Friday night (March 14) with the opener at Maywood Park.

Balmoral Park will host its opening weekend of racing on Saturday (March 15) and Sunday (March 16). As always, post time at both tracks will be 7:10 p.m. (CDT).

In conjunction with track management and the USTA’s Strategic Wagering Program, the $1 Pick-4 wager will once again carry a guaranteed pool each live racing night. For the opening weekend Maywood will have a guaranteed Pick-4 pool of $10,000 on Friday night. Balmoral will follow with a $15,000 guarantee on Saturday night and $20,000 on Sunday night. The $1 Pick-4 is conducted on the final four races of the night at each of the two tracks.

Past performances for the Pick-4 races can always be found be found courtesy of TrackMaster in the handicapping section on www.ustrotting.com.

In addition, this weekend will be the last two chances for fans to win a free entry to the 2014 World Harness Handicapping Championships in the USTA’s online qualifiers. Maywood’s races will be used Friday evening while Balmoral’s Saturday card will be used on March 15. Free TrackMaster Platinum Past Performances for both Maywood and Balmoral are also available to all contestants at www.HorseTourneys.com.

In a slight departure from its usual racing schedule, Balmoral Park will be dark on Wednesday (March 19) and Wednesday (March 26) before getting into full swing with its usual Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday racing schedule. Maywood will race on Thursdays and Fridays as usual.

Also, with the new contract in place, Balmoral-Maywood’s ADW provider, BetZotic, is back up and fully operational. For more information on this exciting new way to play, which includes plenty of extra cash back bonuses for the opening weekend, please go to www.betzotic.com.