{"id":66338,"date":"2025-07-24T18:21:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T22:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/?p=66338"},"modified":"2025-07-24T18:22:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T22:22:17","slug":"lots-of-history-at-batavia-downs-as-the-85th-season-of-harness-racing-begins-saturday-at-the-oldest-lighted-harness-racing-track-in-north-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/24\/lots-of-history-at-batavia-downs-as-the-85th-season-of-harness-racing-begins-saturday-at-the-oldest-lighted-harness-racing-track-in-north-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Lots of history at Batavia Downs as the 85th season of harness racing begins Saturday at the oldest lighted harness racing track in North America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"584\" data-attachment-id=\"66339\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/24\/lots-of-history-at-batavia-downs-as-the-85th-season-of-harness-racing-begins-saturday-at-the-oldest-lighted-harness-racing-track-in-north-america\/20250724_115228\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724_115228-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1660&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1660\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;1.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;SM-G991U&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1753357948&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;5.4&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;40&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0005&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"20250724_115228\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724_115228-scaled.jpg?fit=900%2C584&amp;ssl=1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724_115228.jpg?resize=900%2C584&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66339\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724_115228-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C664&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724_115228-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C195&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724_115228-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C498&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724_115228-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C996&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724_115228-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1328&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724_115228-scaled.jpg?resize=150%2C97&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724_115228-scaled.jpg?w=1800&amp;ssl=1 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>From left-Kyle Swift with his mom\/trainer Ryan Swift, Tim McNeight Jr., Tammy Cummings\/trainer\/ mom of Kyle Cummings (right). Back row-Tim Bojarski, Racing Publicist for Batavia Downs<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Batavia Downs, the oldest lighted harness track in North America, will begin its 85th year of harness racing on Saturday, July 26th, with the first race at 6:00p.m. Batavia Downs racetrack opened on September 20, 1940.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" controls src=\"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Final-Downs-with-graphics-mp4.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Drivers Kyle Cummings of Hamburg, Kyle Swift of Akron, and Tim McNeight Jr. caught up with the media today for brief interviews<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From left-Kyle Swift with his mom\/trainer Ryan Swift, Tim McNeight Jr., Tammy Cummings\/trainer\/ mom of Kyle Cummings (right). Back row-Tim Bojarski, Racing Publicist for Batavia Downs Batavia Downs, the oldest lighted harness track in North America, will begin its 85th year of harness racing on Saturday, July 26th, with the \u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"continue-reading-button\"> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/24\/lots-of-history-at-batavia-downs-as-the-85th-season-of-harness-racing-begins-saturday-at-the-oldest-lighted-harness-racing-track-in-north-america\/\">Continue reading<i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,23],"tags":[376,5268],"class_list":["post-66338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-batavia","category-genesee-county","tag-batavia-downs","tag-harness-racing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8eTP4-hfY","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":66415,"url":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/27\/genesee-county-photos-the-harness-race-season-kicks-off-at-batavia-downs-on-saturday-evening\/","url_meta":{"origin":66338,"position":0},"title":"GENESEE COUNTY\/Photos\/The harness race season kicks off at Batavia Downs on Saturday evening","author":"aka","date":"July 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Kyle Swift is all smiles with his horse Lana's Desire, after placing first in a very close first race of the 2025 Harness Racing season at Batavia Downs on Saturday evening. Kyle Swift goes around the outside to take the first race President and CEO of WROTB, Byron Brown with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Batavia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Batavia","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/category\/gennesse-county\/batavia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250726_181048-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C1057&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250726_181048-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C1057&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250726_181048-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C1057&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250726_181048-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C1057&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250726_181048-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C1057&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":49407,"url":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2024\/01\/03\/genesee-county-batavia-downs-kicks-off-2024-overcoat-meet-on-thursday\/","url_meta":{"origin":66338,"position":1},"title":"GENESEE COUNTY\/Batavia Downs kicks off 2024 overcoat meet on Thursday","author":"aka","date":"January 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"By Tim Bojarski, for Batavia Downs (Photo courtesy of Wendy J. Lowery) Batavia, NY --- Although the summer\/fall meet at Batavia Downs concluded less than four weeks ago, the new year brings a new season of harness racing at the oldest lighted harness track in North America as The Downs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Batavia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Batavia","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/category\/gennesse-county\/batavia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Batavia-Downs-leading-driver-Jim-Morrill-Jr.-geared-up-for-another-winter-meet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Batavia-Downs-leading-driver-Jim-Morrill-Jr.-geared-up-for-another-winter-meet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Batavia-Downs-leading-driver-Jim-Morrill-Jr.-geared-up-for-another-winter-meet.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":77304,"url":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/genesee-county-live-harness-racing-returns-to-batavia-downs-on-wednesday\/","url_meta":{"origin":66338,"position":2},"title":"GENESEE COUNTY\/Live harness racing returns to\u00a0Batavia Downs\u00a0on Wednesday","author":"aka","date":"July 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"By Tim Bojarski, for Batavia Downs (Photo courtesy of Wendy J. Lowery) Batavia, NY ---\u00a0All the preparations are complete and the anticipation to see the horses go behind the gate is high as live harness racing is set to return to Genesee County on Wednesday, July 22 when Batavia Downs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Genesee County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Genesee County","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/category\/genesee-county\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Behind-The-Gate-for-2026.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Behind-The-Gate-for-2026.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Behind-The-Gate-for-2026.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Behind-The-Gate-for-2026.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Behind-The-Gate-for-2026.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":70830,"url":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2025\/12\/11\/genesee-county-batavia-downs-announces-2026-winter-racing-dates\/","url_meta":{"origin":66338,"position":3},"title":"GENESEE COUNTY\/Batavia Downs announces 2026 winter racing dates","author":"aka","date":"December 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Press release Batavia, NY --- After successful meetings with the Western New York Harness Horsemen\u2019s Association, the Board of Directors of Western Regional Off Track Betting have announced that they will host live winter racing at Batavia Downs in January and February for the fourth straight year. The eight day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Genesee County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Genesee County","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/category\/genesee-county\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66298,"url":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/23\/genesee-county-positive-change-abounds-as-batavia-downs-opens-2025-racing-season-saturday\/","url_meta":{"origin":66338,"position":4},"title":"GENESEE COUNTY\/Positive change abounds as Batavia Downs opens 2025 racing season Saturday","author":"aka","date":"July 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"By Tim Bojarski, for Batavia Down (Photos provided by Batavia Downs) Batavia, NY --- As the 2025 summer\/fall harness racing season at Batavia Downs\u00a0gets underway on Saturday (July 26), a new era at the oldest lighted harness track in North America will begin as the facility itself celebrates 85 years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Genesee County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Genesee County","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/category\/genesee-county\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Track-resurfacing-at-Batavia-Downs-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Track-resurfacing-at-Batavia-Downs-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Track-resurfacing-at-Batavia-Downs-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Track-resurfacing-at-Batavia-Downs-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35282,"url":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2022\/08\/19\/genesee-county-ushwa-and-batavia-downs-to-honor-best-of-2021-saturday\/","url_meta":{"origin":66338,"position":5},"title":"GENESEE COUNTY\/USHWA and Batavia Downs to honor best of 2021 Saturday","author":"aka","date":"August 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Tim Bojarski, President of the Upstate NY Chapter of USHWA Batavia, NY --- Every year since 2008 the Upstate New York Chapter of the United States Harness Writers Association and Batavia Downs have honored the top human and equine performers of the meet during the Night of Distinction which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Batavia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Batavia","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/category\/gennesse-county\/batavia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724_115228-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1660&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66338"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66343,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66338\/revisions\/66343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}