Goshen Historic Track Auxiliary Raffle Features 27 Local Restaurant Prizes

Twenty-seven local restaurants and eateries across Goshen and Orange County have joined forces with one of the region's most storied institutions, offering a raffle that puts a season's worth of dining on the line for just five dollars a ticket.

The Auxiliary of Goshen Historic Track opened ticket sales for its annual March Madness Restaurant Raffle, with coverage appearing in local outlets including the Thephoto-news on March 1. The event brings together an unusually broad cross-section of the county's dining scene, with prizes sourced from 27 participating establishments spanning Goshen and the wider Orange County area. While the full list of participating restaurants has not been publicly released, the scope of the prize pool reflects the kind of community-wide buy-in the Auxiliary has cultivated through years of consistent outreach.

A $5 Ticket with Significant Reach

Tickets are priced at $5 for a single entry, a figure confirmed by both the Thephoto-news notice and the Goshen Historic Track's own Facebook page. The Facebook post, which drew reactions and comments from followers, opened with a straightforward appeal: "Don't miss out on another year of great restaurants! Tickets are still available for the Auxiliary's March Madness Restaurant Raffle. Only one ticket for $5 or six tic…" The post was truncated in the captured version, suggesting a multi-ticket bundle option exists, though the complete pricing and terms of that offer were not fully visible in available materials. Prospective buyers should contact the track directly to confirm any bundle pricing before purchasing.

Tickets remain available as of the most recent social media update. The office at 44 Park Place in Goshen is open Monday through Thursday and closed on Fridays, a detail the track's team confirmed directly in a reply to a Facebook commenter named Dan Morse, who wrote "I'll try to remember to get down there this week!" The track responded: "Dan Morse That would be great. The office is open Monday-Thursday, closed Fridays. We're looking forward to seeing you!"

The Auxiliary: Volunteers, Fundraisers, and a Historic Mission

The organization behind the raffle is the Auxiliary of Goshen Historic Track, a volunteer group of men and women whose work spans fundraising, race-day volunteering, and community event participation. The Auxiliary's own website describes its scope plainly: "The Auxiliary of Goshen Historic Track is a group of men and women who do fundraising and volunteer at the races and other events in a variety of ways. Annually, the organization makes a sizable contribution to Historic Track through its vital efforts."

That contribution is not symbolic. The Auxiliary generates revenue through "an array of fundraisers, dinners and raffles," and according to its own historical accounting, "in years past the amount of the Auxiliary's donations ran well into six figures." No specific year-by-year breakdown or current-year target has been published, but the scale of past giving underscores how consequential events like the March Madness raffle are to the track's day-to-day sustainability.

Beyond the dollars raised, the Auxiliary frames its mission in terms of civic preservation: "In addition to fundraising, our goal is to raise public awareness about what a special place the Track is in Orange County." That awareness campaign takes many forms. The group is involved in Car Shows, Marathons, harness races, dinners, and a rotating schedule of other community events, making the Auxiliary one of the more active volunteer organizations tied to any heritage site in the Hudson Valley.

Goshen Historic Track: An 1838 Institution

The beneficiary of all this effort is no ordinary venue. Goshen Historic Track was established in 1838 and carries designation as a National Historic Landmark, making it one of the oldest harness racing venues in the United States and a genuine piece of American sporting and cultural history. Located at 44 Park Place in the Village of Goshen, the track requires year-round maintenance, horse care, and facility upkeep. As the Auxiliary's website notes, "Goshen Historic Track never rests! Every day, year in and year out, the Track and facilities must be maintained while the horses are being cared for and trained." The raffle proceeds feed directly into that continuous operational need.

For anyone unfamiliar with the track's significance within Orange County, the March Madness raffle serves as an annual reminder that the institution's survival depends on exactly this kind of community participation. A five-dollar raffle ticket is, in a practical sense, a small investment in keeping a 180-plus-year-old landmark operational.

How to Participate

Tickets can be pursued through the track's office at 44 Park Place, Goshen, NY 10924, reachable by phone at 845.294.5333 or by email at info@goshenhistorictrack.com. The office is open Monday through Thursday; those planning to stop by on a Friday will find it closed. The track's website at goshenhistorictrack.com carries additional information about the Auxiliary and its ongoing activities.

Several details remain worth confirming before purchasing: the complete multi-ticket bundle pricing referenced in the Facebook post, the final date for ticket sales, the date and format of the drawing itself, how winners will be notified, and the specific prize types each of the 27 restaurants is contributing. Whether the prizes take the form of gift certificates, meals for two, or other dining vouchers has not been detailed in publicly available materials, though the variety implied by 27 participating establishments suggests a wide range of options spanning price points and cuisines across Goshen and Orange County.

A Community Raffle With Real Stakes

For a landmark that has been part of Orange County's identity since before the Civil War, the March Madness Restaurant Raffle represents something more than a fundraiser. It ties the track's future to the present-day restaurant community, linking two pillars of local economic and cultural life in a format that keeps entry accessible to nearly everyone. At $5 per ticket, participation costs less than most of the meals being raffled, and the proceeds sustain a place that no amount of private funding alone could fully replace. The Auxiliary's call to "Be a Part of Harness Racing History" is, in this context, a genuinely low-barrier invitation.