The earliest record of racing at Foxboro Raceway, located in the town of Foxborough in Massachusetts, midway between Boston and Providence, was on Monday 1st September 1947. In those early days the 4 furlong oval track was known as Bay State Raceway and the racecourse was built on land donated by Mr E M Loew who owned a movie and Theatre group. At the inaugural meeting a crowd in excess of 12,000 attended, enjoying some of the most up to date facilities of the time. These included an open air grandstand, and floodlights to facilitate evening racing. A further building programme was completed in the Spring of 1948, and later still a 3500 seater grandstand was opened. The track continued to grow in stature, regularly attracting crowds of 10,000, while on one day in 1970 it broke all records, attracting a crowd of 16,006. The principal race was the Bay State Pace.

Later in 1970, due to a rule change in the American Football Governing bodies, the Schaefer Stadium, later to become Foxboro Stadium, was extended to 5 furlongs, while in 1976 the racetrack was sold to a group called the Foxboro Associates who renamed the track New England Harness Raceway, although by 1989 its gates had closed.

In 1990 Charles Sarkis, already involved in the racing industry as owner of Wonderland Greyhound track, agreed to lease Foxboro Raceway so that an application could be made to stage thoroughbred racing at the track, despite this form of racing not being held in the State once Suffolk Downs closed in 1989. Considerable work was completed on the track, including adding a new chute, and the track opened on Wednesday 27th May 1992 when known as Foxboro Park. Plans were passed to enable thoroughbred racing to take place between May and September, while harness races could continue to be offered from September to December. However, the venture was beset with problems, including an outbreak of equine virus, lower than anticipated betting returns from the pari-mutuel and higher than expected building costs. The track finally closed after its meeting on Monday 18th August 1997.

After the closure of Foxboro Park some of the land was sold to Gary Piontkowski who built a harness track, opening it as Plainridge Racecourse in 1999. The remaining land on the site of the former Foxboro Raceway was used to build Gillette Stadium in 2000.

ISBN 978-0-9957632-0-3

652 pages

774 former courses

ISBN 978-0-9957632-1-0

352 pages

400 former courses

ISBN 978-0-9957632-2-7

180 pages

140 former courses

ISBN 978-0-9957632-3-4

264 pages

235 former courses