Freehold Raceway stakes to carry $5.4 million in purses
$450,000 Cane Pace is biggest event, scheduled for Labor Day
Freehold Raceway unveiled a lucrative stakes schedule worth close to $5.4 million for 2002, again headed by the $450,000 Cane Pace.
The Cane Pace is the first leg of pacing’s Triple Crown for three-year-old pacers and has been held at Freehold since 1998. This year’s Cane will be raced on Labor Day, Sept. 2.
The $300,000 James B, Dancer Memorial, a fixture at Freehold Raceway since 1976, will conclude the stakes schedule on Nov. 16. The Dancer is one of the top three-year-old pacing events of the year.
The 2002 stakes schedule gets under way on March 5 with the first leg of the Stewart Hanover series for year-old and up pacers. This year’s stakes schedule features 111 divisions with nine of the stakes carrying purses of $100,000 or more. Another 19 stakes will offer purses between $75,000-$100,000.
The Grand Circuit begins its 2002 season at Freehold on May 3 with the $90,000 Lady Suffolk for three-year-old trotting fillies. The biggest race of the spring meet will be the $190,000 Dexter Cup final for three-year-old trotters that will be contested on May 11 at the half-mile harness racing track.
Other major stakes on the schedule are the $75,000 Joseph McLoone Freehold Cup, May 4; the $150,000 Helen Dancer final, May 11; the $150,000 Shady Daisey, Sept. 2; the $175,000 Lou Babic final, Sept. 2; the $100,000 Harold R. Dancer final, Sept. 11; the $150,000 Battle of Freehold, Sept. 21; and the $100,000 Charles I. Smith Trot, Oct. 18.
The New Jersey Sire Stakes will also be well represented on the stakes schedule with $1.7 million in purses up for grabs in the pari-mutuel divisions, as well as $800,000 in the Green Acres series.
The Lou Babic, the Lou Babic Memorial for fillies, the Charles I. Smith, the Helen Smith Memorial, the Harold R. Dancer and the Harold R. Dancer for fillies are restricted to New Jersey-sire horses and carry estimate aggregate sums of more than $500,000 in purses.