Finger Lakes shifts 2-year-old stakes

Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack will present the same 17 stakes in 2007 that it offered a year ago. The order of the events, however, has been altered in an attempt to give more late-developing 2-year-olds a chance to run for added money.

The $200,000 New York Breeders' Futurity, the track's premier race for juveniles, has been pushed back a month from Labor Day weekend to Oct. 6.

The season's first two stakes for 2-year-olds, the Aspirant and the Lady Finger, each worth $100,000, will be run about three weeks later than usual, on Sept. 3 rather than mid-August.

Last year, only six fillies competed in the Lady Finger, and seven males, including one first-time starter, ran in the Aspirant.

Joe Colassacco, Finger Lakes's racing secretary, said that by scheduling the major races for 2-year-olds a bit later on the calendar, locally based horsemen will have more of their young stock ready to run in a stakes.

The track's biggest race for 3-year-olds, the $150,000 New York Derby, remains at its usual spot on the schedule in mid-July.

All but four of the stakes the track will offer are restricted to New York-breds.