United States Trotting Association Website (2024)

FAQs

What time does the US Trotting Association open? ›

Hours: weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST; after hours, please leave a message on the USTA voice mail. Click here for a departmental phone & e-mail directory.

Harness Racing Tracks Offered by TwinSpires

TwinSpires offers harness racing (or standardbred racing to use the correct name) on over 35 harness tracks around the USA and Canada. With day and night racing every day of the week, you can bet online on harness racing on any of the tracks below.

The harness racing industry conducts an annual Grand Circuit, which includes many of the most prestigious races for both pacers and trotters. Founded in 1871 and first conducted in 1873 at four tracks, the Grand Circuit now visits 20 tracks as of the most recent 2021 season.

We offer our customers the opportunity to bet online on all different types of horse racing, including throroughbred, harness, and quarter horse, with a total of more than 300 racetracks.

As early as 1554 the fastest of 3,000 horses at a horse fair in Valkenburg in Holland competed in trotting matches. The Golden Whip, Holland's most famous trotting event, was first run in 1777 at Soestdijk. About the same time Aleksey, Count Orlov, began to develop a powerful trotting strain at his stud farm in Russia.

Trotting betting markets are incredibly similar to that of Horse Racing, except in the format of harness races. bettors can place a bet on the winner of a race, whether a horse is going to finish in the top three of a race and head-to-head bets, where you can bet on whether one horse will beat another.

Pacers are faster, accelerate quicker, and are less likely than trotters to break stride because most wear hobbles. The hobbles connect the front and rear legs on the same side of a horse to help balance and stabilize the horse on turns and maintain their gait.

Every Standardbred had to be able to trot a mile in less than two minutes and 30 seconds. Today, many Standardbreds are faster than this original standard, with several pacing the mile within 1 min, 50 sec, and trotters only a few seconds slower than pacers.

Compensation: Drivers generally earn 5 percent of what the horse earns in purses. At some tracks, they also get a guaranteed minimum per drive, and many drivers get tips as well. Most drivers make $20,000 - $50,000 a year, but the very best drivers can earn over $500,000 annually.

During harness races, if the horse breaks their gait and accelerates into a canter or gallop they have to be slowed back down into their correct gait or they will be disqualified. When a horse “breaks” their gait, this simply means that their pattern of footfall has changed.

Do retired racehorses go to slaughter? ›

About 20,000 U.S. horses—including former racehorses, work horses, show animals, discarded pets, and even wild horses—are sold to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico every year, according to a recent report by U.S. nonprofits Animal Wellness Action, Center for a Humane Economy, and Animals' Angels.

The end of a racing career for thoroughbreds often marks the beginning of another significant contribution to the industry through breeding. The vast majority of those retired for breeding are females. In 2022 alone, almost 30,000 thoroughbred mares were bred in the US, producing a crop of around 18,000 foals.

The traditional high point of US horse racing is the Kentucky Derby, held on the first Saturday of May at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

The oldest racetrack in the United States is Freehold Raceway in New Jersey. It opened in the 1830s but races harness horses (standard breds) not Thoroughbreds.

Earlier this year, the richest horse race in the world was run at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida, just outside Miami. The first-of-its-kind $12 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational surpassed the Dubai World Cup as the world's richest Thoroughbred horse race.

Date: Friday, March 10, 2023 Doors Open: 5:30 pm Time: 6:45 pm – 8:30 pm (The American Performance Horseman) Live Concert Performance: 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm.

The RDS Dublin Horse Show kicks off on Wednesday, August 14, and will run until Sunday, August 18. It all kicks off at noon in Dublin 4, with the total prize money over which participants will compete being €1,467, 325.

What time is the Great Steamboat Race? Boarding for the Great Steamboat Race is between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. The departure is at 5:45 p.m. and the race starts at 6 p.m.

Some days racing starts at 12:00 p.m., while other days racing starts at 5:00 p.m. There's about 20 minutes between each race.