HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The stakes schedule for the 2025-26 Gulfstream Park Championship meeting will have a familiar look to it with the program again highlighted by the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational, and the $1 million Florida Derby.
The three Grade 1 events are the focal point of a stakes program that offers 68 races overall, 27 of them graded, and 38 of which are carded on turf. The stakes have a total value of $15.2 million.
As was the case for the first time last season, the 2025-26 meet will open on Thanksgiving Day. The 84-day session will run from Nov. 27 through March 29.
The most noteworthy change on this year’s schedule was the renaming of the Grade 3 La Prevoyante Stakes, which is now called the Christophe Clement Stakes in honor of the late trainer who won the race a record six times. The Clement will be one of 10 stakes, five on grass, to be decided on the Pegasus World Cup card on Jan. 24.
The 2026 Florida Derby, to be contested at 1 1/8 miles on March 28, will be the 75th in the illustrious history of an event that has produced the winners of 62 Triple Crown races, including the Kentucky Derby 26 times since its inception in 1952. Sovereignty captured the Kentucky Derby this season after finishing second in the Florida Derby behind Tappan Street five weeks earlier.
Florida Derby Day also will feature 10 stakes, five of them graded, with purses totaling nearly $2.5 million. The undercard will be topped by the Grade 2, $250,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks for 3-year-old fillies, a major prep for the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks.
The road to the Florida Derby will, as usual, include a pair of important Kentucky Derby preps, the Grade 3 Holy Bull on Jan. 31 and the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth four weeks later. Both races to be decided at 1 1/16 miles.
The Fountain of Youth is the richest and most important of nine stakes, eight graded, to be carded on Feb. 28. The program will include a pair of Grade 2 events, the Davona Dale at one mile for 3-year-old fillies and the 1 3/8-mile Mac Diarmida for older horses on the turf.
The stakes schedule will kick off on opening day with the $100,000 Wait a While for 2-year-old fillies on the grass and will be followed two days later by the $300,000 finales of the Florida Sire Stakes Series for 2-year-olds, the 1 1/16-mile In Reality and its filly counterpart, the My Dear Girl.