The Belmont at the Big A fall meeting will feature 50 stakes races worth $10.35 million, officials at the New York Racing Association (NYRA) announced Thursday.
Thirty-one days of racing are scheduled at Aqueduct Racetrack, which will once again stage the meeting due to the ongoing construction at Belmont Park. The meet begins on Friday, Sept. 13 and runs through Sunday, Nov. 3.
Three Grade I contests for on the flat and six Breeders' Cup Challenge races are to be run, including the first of the elite-level events, the $500,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic for older male turf horses at 12 furlongs. Also featured on that Sept. 28 program are the GII Woodward Stakes and a pair of 'Win and You're In' qualifiers–the GII Vosburgh Stakes with an entry into the Breeders' Cup Sprint at stake; and the GII Pilgrim Stakes, which grants the winner a spot in the field for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. The weekend also includes the $250,000 GII Gallant Bloom Stakes and the GII Miss Grillo Stakes, a qualifying race for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
The stakes action continues the next weekend, beginning Friday, Oct. 4 with the running of the GIII Waya Stakes, while juvenile males square off in the GIII Futurity Stakes for a spot in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. The GI Champagne Stakes and its filly counterpart, the GI Frizette Stakes, are carded for Saturday, Oct. 5, with both winners gaining free entry into the corresponding races on Breeders' Cup weekend. Supporting those two races are the GIII Belmont Turf Sprint and GIII Jockey Club Derby. The weekend wraps up with the GII Beldame Stakes and GIII Matron Stakes on Sunday's card.
The annual Empire Showcase Day card is set for Sunday, Oct. 27, which includes eight stakes restricted to New York-breds worth a total of $1.6 million. The richest of the day's races are the Empire Classic and Empire Distaff at $250,000.
Other highlights of the schedule include the $350,000 GIII Jockey Club Oaks in which the exciting Cinderella's Dream (GB) (Shamardal) could go for a sweep of the Turf Triple Tiara; the GII Sands Point Stakes, also for 3-year-old fillies on the grass; the GII Mother Goose Stakes for sophomore fillies on the main track; and the GIII Forty Niner Stakes, which offers the top three free nomination to and staring fees for the GII Cigar Mile during the Aqueduct fall meet.
Click here for the complete Belmont at the Big A stakes schedule.
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