Cigar Mile tops stakes at extended Aqueduct fall meet

The New York Racing Association will offer 33 stakes worth $6.375 million at the Aqueduct fall meet, which has been extended to include 11 race days in December that typically have been designated part of the winter meet.

After hosting the 28-day Belmont fall meet from Sept. 15 through Oct. 30, Aqueduct will officially host its own 29-day fall meet from Nov. 4 through Dec. 31. In previous years, Aqueduct’s fall meet would end the first weekend in December, with its winter meet beginning the following week. Now, the winter meet will start in January.

As usual, the Grade 1, $750,000 Cigar Mile for 3-year-olds and up is the highlight of the fall season. It will be run Dec. 3 on the same card as the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen for juvenile males, the Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle for juvenile fillies, and the Grade 2, $200,00 Go for Wand Handicap for fillies and mares 3-and-up.

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The Go for Wand, reduced by $50,000, was one of 10 fall stakes that received a purse cut. The Grade 3 Long Island, a turf race for females shortened to 1 3/8 miles from 1 1/2 miles, was reduced to $300,000 -- a $100,000 cut from 2021. Four stakes -- the Comely (Nov. 25), Fall Highweight (Nov. 26), and two divisions of the New York Stallion Stakes (Dec. 4) -- were each reduced by $25,000. Four ungraded stakes that had been worth $150,000 in 2021 will be offered at $135,000 this fall.

Eight stakes received purse increases, led by the Grade 2 Red Smith (Nov. 26), a 1 3/8-mile turf race, which will now be worth $300,000, a $100,000 bump from 2021. The $135,000 Gravesend (Dec. 3) and the $150,000 Queens County (Dec. 31), received increases of $35,000 and $25,000 respectively. Five listed stakes received $20,000 increases from a year ago. Two of those races, the Central Park and Tepin, turf races for 2-year-olds and 2-year-old fillies, respectively, have been shortened to a mile from 1 1/16 miles.

The Dec. 17 card includes the Great White Way and Fifth Avenue divisions of the New York Stallion Stakes for 2-year-olds at seven furlongs on dirt. Both races carry purses of $500,000.

Two stakes for New York-breds, the Alex M. Robb and Bay Ridge (both Dec. 17), have been shortened to one mile from 1 1/8 miles.

Racing in the fall will be conducted four days a week, Thursdays through Sundays, with the exception of Thanksgiving Day, when there will be no racing. There will also be a 10-day holiday break from Dec. 19-28.