When the Meadowlands Racetrack opened on Sept. 1, 1976, a 16-year-old John Calabrese was in attendance. The new facility was less than 10 minutes from his childhood home in North Jersey, and it gave Calabrese his first-ever look at harness racing. “It was such a big thing when they built the (football) stadium and the racetrack,” Calabrese said. “There were so many commercials on TV, so much fanfare about it, so we went to the track. It was fabulous. That was it. “My father and I and my brother used to go there all the time. We’d have dinner, we’d look at each other, and my father would ask if we wanted to go to the races. We’d say, 'Sure.'”