Aqueduct cancels final seven races on card due to high winds

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The final seven races of Sunday’s nine-race Aqueduct card were canceled when the jockeys expressed concerns about high winds.

The winds at nearby JFK Airport were around 25 miles per hour with gusts as high as 45 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.

“It’s very windy, a lot of people felt it’s not safe,” said jockey Jose Lezcano, who rode the first two races.

Jockey Manny Franco said “we all agreed” it was too windy to continue.

The cancellation was announced following the second race. The Grade 3, $175,000 Pebbles Stakes for 3-year-old fillies and the $150,000 Forever Together Stakes, for older females, which were to be the final two turf stakes run in New York this year, were postponed.

Those two races are now rescheduled for next Sunday; entries will be taken on Wednesday. Due to concerns about the inner turf course, the Pebbles will now be run at 1 1/16 miles and moved to the outer turf course. It had been carded as a one-mile race for the inner turf. Next week is scheduled to be the final week of turf racing in New York for 2025.

Sunday was the fourth wind-related cancellation at Aqueduct since Oct. 12.

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