NYRA to offer 20 stakes during winter meeting

OZONE PARK, N.Y. -- There will be 20 stakes worth $3.1 million offered during Aqueduct’s 2025 winter meet, which will have 49 programs from Jan. 1-March 30, the New York Racing Association announced Wednesday.

During the 2024 winter meet, there were 26 stakes offered totaling $3.5 million in purses. This winter, NYRA has eliminated a trio of $100,000 stakes – the Cicada, Rego Park, and Franklin Square – while moving three stakes – the Excelsior, Haynesfield, and Biogio’s Rose – to the spring meet.

The winter program includes three stakes for 3-year-olds – the $150,000 Jerome on Jan. 4, the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers on Feb. 1, and the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes on March 1 – that offer qualifying points to the May 3 Kentucky Derby. Those three races also lead up to the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial, another Derby points-scoring race, which will likely be run April 5, though NYRA did not release its spring stakes schedule.

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The March 1 card also includes the $200,000 Busher, a qualifying race for the Kentucky Oaks; the Grade 3, $175,000 Tom Fool; and the listed $150,000 Stymie. The only other graded event offered during the winter is the Grade 3, $175,000 Toboggan for sprinters on Feb. 1.

Ten stakes received $25,000 purse increases to $125,000. Those races are the Busanda, a Kentucky Oaks point-scoring race on Jan. 18; the Ruthless (Feb. 1); Damon Runyon and East View (Feb. 8); Say Florida Sandy (Feb. 15); Broadway (Feb. 23); Correction (March 2); Gander and Maddie May (March 8); and Jimmy Winkfield (March 15).

The Damon Runyon and East View, for New York-bred 3-year-olds and 3-year-old fillies, respectively, have been extended from six to seven furlongs.

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