Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association
Posted: April 3, 2019
The 2019 MATCH Series partners have arranged to offer free custom past performances for the complete programs at each of the five participating racetracks under a marketing agreement with Equibase.
Under the terms of the agreement, final past performances for the full card at each track will be available for download at no charge on a special page at www.equibase.com on each of the five MATCH Series days. Links to the full-card past performances also will be available through www.MATCHSeries.com and the websites of the partner tracks.
This year’s MATCH Series schedule is as follows: April 20 at Laurel Park, June 1 at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course, July 13 at Delaware Park, Sept. 2 at Parx Racing and Sept. 28 at Monmouth Park. There will be 20 stakes in the series this year under a new format whereby each track will host one race in each of four divisions on the same day for a total of 20 races.
The four divisions for 2019 are 3-Year-Olds and Up Sprint–Dirt, Filly and Mare Sprint–Dirt, 3-Year-Olds and Up Sprint–Turf, and Filly and Mare Long–Turf.
The MATCH Series events for the most part have been scheduled as part of major stakes days at the Mid-Atlantic tracks.
Laurel will have seven stakes when the series kicks off, including local preps for the Preakness Stakes and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes; the Penn National card will feature the grade II Penn Mile and Penn Oaks; Delaware Park’s MATCH day is tied to the grade II Delaware Handicap; and at Parx the series will complement a pair of grade III stakes—the Smarty Jones, a local prep for the grade I Pennsylvania Derby, and the Turf Monster.
The fifth and final MATCH Series championship leg at Monmouth will be the focal point of the track’s final Saturday program of its 2019 meet.
More information will be available at www.MATCHSeries.com over the next few weeks. Nominations for the four series events that will launch the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championships Series at Laurel close April 11.
(Laurel Park photo by Jim McCue/MJC)