Though the loss of Freehold Raceway is sad, one of its signature races looks to have a rebirth at The Big M.

by Brett Sturman

A stake for 3-year-old trotters with rich history, the Dexter Cup has fallen on hard times over the years. But the former early-season staple on the road to the Hambletonian could be reinvigorated as the race, formerly contested at the now-departed Freehold Raceway, will now be run at The Meadowlands, with the 2025 edition taking place next Saturday (May 3).

In the distant past, the stake had produced top Hambletonian hopefuls year after year. The early 1990s was when the race was last at its highest. That’s when the eventual 1993 Hambletonian winner, American Winner, won the race. The next year, the great Mr Lavec won the Dexter Cup and was a narrow runner-up in that year’s Hambletonian to Victory Dream.

The race hasn’t been completely terrible since then. Sir Pinocchio, who won last year’s race, was a nice sophomore trotter. The New York Sire Stakes champion also won the Matron, a Canadian Trotting Classic elimination and earned over $640,000 last year. The winner two years ago, Khaosan Road, also won a few other fringe stakes in addition to the Dexter Cup. But since 1993, to look at it another way, the Pennsylvania fair circuit, as one example, has produced more Hambletonian winners than the Dexter Cup.

Other than the obvious difference with the race now moving from a half-mile track to a mile oval, the composition of the race at The Meadowlands next week will resemble the race had it been run at Freehold. But a change in its participants and how the race is viewed as a viable first stop on the road to the Hambletonian may be coming.

In assessing the number of eligibles from this year’s February and March stakes payments, Hambletonian Society president and CEO John Campbell said, “We actually saw a decline in our 3-year-old payments for February to be eligible for this year, which we were disappointed in to not have as big an audience we would have hoped for this year. The only thing we came up with as an explanation was that the audience that paid into the race for this year looked like trainers that either haven’t raced at The Meadowlands much, or they were nominating horses that they thought were more suited for a half-mile track but wanted to race early.”

The lack of entries in the 3-year-old stakes payments, as noted by Campbell, has resulted in just 10 horses remaining eligible for the May 3 race, which will be drawn early next week. And looking at the past performances of those 10 horses with a couple of them not having raced at all this year and another showing one subpar qualifier a month ago, the number of actual race entries will be even lower. This shouldn’t be a reflection or indication of where the race is heading though, as the race was still to be contested at Freehold when 2-year-old payments for the crop began over a year ago, and Campbell has already noted a turnaround for the shape of the race for next year.

In comparison to this year’s nominations, Campbell said, “We’re already seeing a change in the audience that’s paying into the race. The 2-year-olds that made their March payments to be eligible next year in 2026, are up over 100 per cent from last year. So, it’s going to be a much different audience of horses to draw from next year. We were definitely apprehensive as to what the 2-year-old payments in March would look like based on what we saw in February, but when they came back so high, it’s going to widen that audience for 2026.”

One could debate if the stake comes too early in the season to be a true steppingstone towards the Hambletonian, but I personally like the niche it’s carved out as the start of the stakes season for 3-year-old trotters. Timing wasn’t an issue in the 1990s when it was always conducted in May, and it shouldn’t be one now either. The timing gives horses who have been developing at different times, and may have not yet proven to be of the quality of the ones that will be returning later in May and June, a chance to compete at higher levels at The Meadowlands earlier in the year. Plus, with the newly-minted harness racing graded system, I believe that the Dexter Cup, along with its Grade 3 designation, will be the first race next week to provide harness racing with a graded stakes winner.

Another noted change will be a new format for the Dexter Cup. In the past the race format featured eliminations and a final. At The Meadowlands, the Dexter Cup (along with the Lady Suffolk for sophomore filly trotters), will be spilt into divisions when necessary. This won’t be an issue this year as with the small number of entries the race would have gone straight into a final anyway (as it did last at Freehold as well). But the fact that horses won’t have to race an extra week earlier while many are still training back could be viewed as a benefit, too.

By 2027, which would be the first year all nominations from that crop would have known the race is at The Meadowlands, the Dexter Cup could look vastly different than it has for the better part of 30 years.