Aqueduct 2020 winter meet to run 47 days

OZONE PARK, N.Y. -- The New York Racing Association has scheduled 47 cards of racing at Aqueduct through the first quarter of 2020, and the stakes program will virtually mirror that of the first quarter of 2019.

The January-through-March schedule is part of a 59-day 2019-20 Aqueduct winter meet that officially begins on Dec. 12. The December dates were announced earlier this year.

The 47 scheduled cards are one fewer than was scheduled in the first quarter of 2019. As has been the case the last few winters, racing will be conducted mostly on a four-day-a-week schedule, Thursdays through Sundays, in January and February and three days a week, Fridays through Sundays, in March. In January, Thursdays Jan. 2 and Jan. 16 will be dark owing to cards run on Jan. 1 (New Year’s Day) and Jan. 20 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day). Thursday, Feb. 13, will be dark to accommodate the Presidents Day (Feb. 17) card.

From Jan. 1 through March 29, there will be 39 stakes offered at Aqueduct with purses totaling $4.27 million. The richest race of the winter will be the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes, a one-turn mile race restricted to 3-year-olds, scheduled for March 7. The Gotham, along with the $150,000 Jerome on Jan. 1 and the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers on Feb. 1, all offer qualifying points toward the May 2 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. The Grade 2 Wood Memorial, likely to be run April 4 as part of Aqueduct’s spring meet, is another race that offers qualifying points to the Derby.

The March 7 card will also include the $250,000 Busher Invitational for 3-year-old fillies, the Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap for male sprinters and the $125,000 Stymie for older males going long. The Stymie, along with the $125,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational for older females on March 8, had their purses cut by $25,000. The Jimmy Winkfield, a seven-furlong race restricted to 3-year-old sprinters run on Feb. 8, had its purse trimmed by $50,000 to $100,000. The Grade 3 Toboggan, for older male sprinters on Jan. 18, received a $50,000 purse bump to $150,000.

Aqueduct will again host Claiming Championship Day on March 28, a card of 10 stakes restricted to claiming horses with purses totaling $620,000.

The Damon Runyon and East View stakes, typically run in December for New York-bred 2-year-olds and 2-year-old fillies, have been moved to March 15 and March 29, respectively, and will now be for New York-bred 3-year-olds. They both have been shortened from a mile to seven furlongs.

Those races were moved to accommodate the two $500,000 New York Stallion Stakes races for progeny of New York-based stallions to be run Dec. 14 and 15.