Washington, PA — Here is this week’s Meadows Monday Memo.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS RETURN
The Meadows will see a change in the racing schedule starting this Friday. Under the lights action will return for the summer on Friday nights starting this week (May 24), with a 5:10 p.m. post time. The Greater Pittsburgh Food Truck Festival will kick off this Friday night during the races, and there will be no live racing this Saturday (May 25). The regular four-day/week schedule will return next week.

DEAD HEAT HAVEN
The Meadows has seen a high number of close finishes so far this year, including races where two horses cannot be separated by the photo finish camera. When Leave Her Wild and Itz Missauckland N finished in a dead heat for win on Wednesday (May 15), it marked the fourth time this season that a Meadows race has ended in a tie. With 750 races contested overall for the season at that point, that’s a 0.53% rate. Overall in harness racing this year, according to U.S. Trotting Association figures, dead heats have occurred .16% of the time, with 18 dead heats out of more than 12,500 races, not including races at The Meadows. That means The Meadows is seeing dead heats this year at a rate more than triple that of other tracks. By comparison, last year dead heats occurred nationwide at a .22% rate

SHAW RETURNS TO WINNER’S CIRCLE
This past Thursday (May 16), Chris Shaw catch-drove Battin Athousand to a win for owner/trainer Roger Hammer in a conditioned trot. It was the first win for Shaw since Sept. 28, 2021. On that day, he won the first race of the afternoon before being involved in a racing accident less than an hour later that left him injured and unable to drive for more than two years. It was just the 17th drive of the 2024 season for Shaw, who at the time of the accident was third at The Meadows in total number of drives for the 2021 season.

WIENER DOG RACING THIS FRIDAY
The ever-popular wiener dog races will return to The Meadows this coming Friday evening. Three elimination races and a final will take place, interspersed with the track’s regular Standardbred offerings. Unfortunately, no wagering will be permitted on the wiener dog events.