The New York Racing Association and Woodbine Entertainment have joined forces to offer a 14-race series of stakes worth $3.2 million restricted to horses bred in New York and Canada for 2026-27, the two companies announced Tuesday. Twelve of the races – known as the Empire Trillium Series – will be run over synthetic and two will be conducted on turf, with the latter pair to be held at Woodbine in June 2027. The series will begin at Belmont Park in December when NYRA utilizes its new one-mile synthetic strip as its exclusive surface for winter racing. When Belmont Park opens for live racing on Sept. 18, the Tapeta track will be used specifically for scheduled turf races that are rained off the grass due to weather. Between December and February 2027, Belmont will host eight stakes in the Empire Trillium Series over its Tapeta track. In the spring, the series will move to Woodbine for the final six stakes – four on Tapeta and two on turf – to be held between April and July 2027. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. The marquee events of the series at Belmont Park will be held in late January 2027 with the inaugural editions of the $300,000 Long Island Derby and Oaks, which will serve as the middle leg of the New York segment of the series. The remaining six races in the series at Belmont will all be run for foals of 2024 with purses of $200,000 each. Four of those races will comprise the inaugural Empire Trillium opening day, when a sprint and route race for each gender will be run on Dec. 26. The final two races will be sprints, one for each gender run in late February. NYRA is very much counting on the Tapeta track being a lure for Canadian-based trainers to maintain stables at Belmont for the winter. “NYRA looks forward to partnering with Woodbine Entertainment in this unique venture to create additional black-type opportunities for owners and breeders on both sides of the border and to drive further interest in the inaugural winter meet at the new Belmont Park,” Rob MacLennan, racing secretary for NYRA, said in a release.  Woodbine, which typically opens in April, will host six races in the series for 3-year-olds and up. These will include four $200,000 events comprised of six-furlong sprints for both males and females on Tapeta during Spring 2027, followed by seven-furlong sprints on Tapeta in the same categories in July 2027. The Woodbine-based races are headlined by a pair of $300,000, one-mile turf races – one for males, one for females – to be run in June. “Woodbine is excited to partner with NYRA on this new racing series that creates opportunities for not just our racetracks, but for those that invest in the racing programs in New York and Canada,” Tim Lawson, vice president of Thoroughbred racing for Woodbine, said in a release. “It’s important that we be innovative and look to try new things, and we’re optimistic the Empire Trillium Series will generate positive results for everyone involved.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.