Live racing returns to Plainridge Park Monday
At 0h18, on April 12, 2025 • By Tim Bojarski, Plainridge Park
Live harness racing returns to Massachusetts on Monday (April 14) at 4 p.m. when Plainridge Park kicks off its 2025 season with the best horses, drivers and trainers from New England who will line up for the next eight months during the meet that runs through Friday (Nov. 29).
The 110-day racing schedule starts with a Monday-Tuesday-Thursday rotation from April until May 30, when Friday is added for five weeks. The schedule then goes back to Monday-Tuesday-Thursday from June 30 through Sept. 25. Then in October, Friday is added again until the end of the year.
The two exceptions include dark days on Tuesday (July 22) due to a Sunday 2 p.m. matinee on July 20 featuring the Spirit of Massachusetts Trot and Thursday (Nov. 27) when the track will be closed in observance of Thanksgiving.
Post time for all race days from April through August is 4 p.m. (except for Sunday, July 20). In September and October, post time rolls back to 2 p.m. and in November, it moves back one more time to 1 p.m.
The action on the track looks to be as competitive as ever with all the top Plainridge drivers returning this year.
Last year’s co-champion dash drivers Brett Beckwith and Bruce Ranger, who tied for the title with 166 wins apiece, will lead the way with other top five finishers Matty Athearn, Kevin Switzer Jr. and Nick Graffam looking to move up the leaderboard in 2025.
Beckwith, who has become one of the top drivers in North America, was honored in February at the Dan Patch Awards in Orlando, Fla., as the United States Harness Writers Association’s 2024 Rising Star as a result of a career year that saw a great number of his starts made at Plainridge.
And he hasn’t missed a beat this year as he already has 216 wins, which places him third in victories among all North American drivers, and earnings in excess of $1.5 million that puts him seventh.
Beckwith is currently the runaway leader for dash wins at Saratoga where he has tallied 136 victories, a number totaling twice his nearest competitor.
