Great American Weekend at Goshen

How do you get to Goshen, New York? Take Exit 124 off Route 17 – and go back 150 years.

The county seat of Orange County, Goshen is home to the annual Great American Weekend celebration on July 1 and July 2 (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.), including a craft show, exhibits, games, carnival food and are centered in and around the village’s historic, tree-ringed green, surrounded by stone office buildings, churches, and Queen Anne-style homes dating to the late 1700s.

Goshen is home to Historic Track, a harness racing track that opened in 1838 and is the country's oldest active horse racing track. There's been trotting horse racing on the streets of Goshen since the Revolutionary War era. True to history, there is no betting and fans can stroll through the stable area. The track is on the National Park Service's registry of historic landmarks. There will be Grand Circuit racing at the track June 30-July 4 as part of Goshen's Fourth of July celebration. Post time each day is 1 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults; children 12 and under are free. Programs are $1.

Directly adjacent to the racetrack at 290 Main Street is the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame. Housed in a Tudor carriage house, the museum interprets the history of harness racing throughout the world and is home to several priceless collections. Among them are sterling silver Faberge items created for Czar Nicholas of Russia and given to New Yorker CKG Billings when he raced his fine trotters in Russia. Also at the museum is what is believed to be the largest single collection of Currier and Ives equine prints. The museum’s most popular exhibit is the racing simulator theater, where guests get a 3-D presentation of racing as if they’re driving in a race, feeling the wind in their hair and jiggling along with every step of the speeding horse. For information on the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame, call 845-294-6330 or visit www.harnessmuseum.com. Admission to the museum is free June 30-July 4; it’s open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

On Sunday, July 2, the newest Hall of Fame class will be inducted. It will include three-time Hambletonian-winning trainer Ron Gurfein and Little Brown Jug Society President W.D. "Tom" Thomson. Also on July 2, Historic Track will host a race for Hall of Fame drivers and trainers. The Hall of Famers will greet the public after their race at the south end of the grandstand. To date, those confirmed include Gurfein, Doug Ackerman, Mike Lachance, John Simpson Jr. and Ron Pierce.

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