Winning Key Farm Named Title Sponsor of America’s Classic Trotting Race, the Hambletonian at The Meadowlands.

The Hambletonian Society, which owns and administers America’s premier trotting race, the $1-million Hambletonian, is proud to announce the addition of Winning Key Farm, owned by Patty Key, as the race’s title sponsor. Founded in 1926, the Hambletonian will celebrate its 100-year anniversary on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026at Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, NJ.

Patty Key, who re-envisioned the dynastic operation started and run by her late husband Bob into a boutique breeding and racing operation, welcomed the opportunity to participate in the historic anniversary of the Hambletonian. 

“Winning Key Farm is honored to sponsor the 101st edition of the Hambletonian. The prestige and excitement that this race brings to trotting fans is second to none,” said Key. “With its international audience, the Hambletonian is the perfect opportunity to  promote our farm and bring attention to the quality yearlings that we will be offering in this and future years,” she continued. Patty and Bob Key’s Winning Key Farm has been one of the most prolific and successful Standardbred breeding and racing operations for the last four decades. Located in Worthington, PA, Winning Key Farm housed more than 300 horses at one point. 

The Keys, in partnership with the late John Glesmann, bred and raced 1993 Hambletonian champion American Winner.  American Winner was a son of Super Bowl and the Speedy Somolli mare BJ’s Pleasure, who Key and Glesmann purchased as a yearling. A superior trotter, BJ’s Pleasure was successful on the track but shone as a broodmare. She was inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 2001 as the dam of 20 foals with more than $3.3 million in collective earnings.  Both American Winner and Bob Key, who passed away in 2021, were inducted to Immortals of the Hall of Fame in 2025. Patty Key has continued her late husband’s legacy while putting her distinctive stamp on the farm in recent years, reducing the broodmare band and acquiring top-shelf stallion shares and mares to rebrand the Winning Key name at both yearling sales and racetracks. Over the last four years Winning Key has remained in the top 20 breeders by earnings list amidst far larger and more established farm names. She was also part-owner of the 2022 Dan Patch champion freshman trotter Volume Eight, and retained her interest in him as a stallion at Hanover Shoe Farms. His exciting first crop of yearlings will hit the sales rings this fall.    

It is Key’s belief that sponsoring the Hambletonian will give the farm an elevated and international platform to showcase its breeding program and further raise the profile of the Winning Key name. 

“Your next trotting champion might be waiting right here at Winning Key Farm,” Key remarked. “We can be your ‘Key to Success!’”

The Winning Key Farm Hambletonian will headline a stakes-laden race card and be nationally televised on FOX Sports and CBS Sports Network. The farm will also be featured in the Winning Key Road to the Hambletonian and the 101st Hambletonian broadcast on CBS Sports Network. 

“The Hambletonian Society is honored to welcome Winning Key Farm as the title sponsor for our 101st Hambletonian,” said Hambletonian Society president and chief executive officer John Campbell. “Winning Key has made it their mission to breed Standardbreds that compete at the upper echelons of our sport which fits perfectly with the Hambletonian Society's mission of offering and promoting the highest quality Stake races.

“We thank Patty Key for her vision and commitment to the Hambletonian and look forward to their participation in the greatest day in harness racing.”

First contested in 1926 at the Syracuse Fairgrounds in New York, the Hambletonian Stake was created by the Hambletonian Society to promote the Standardbred trotting breed. The race has been hosted by The Meadowlands since 1981, the longest-running venue for the sought-after event.

Hambletonian Day at The Meadowlands is consistently the highest-handling event in harness racing, generating more than $115 million in single-day wagering since 2010.