Aqueduct is on the clock.
With a redeveloped Belmont Park expected to open in September 2026, there are roughly 10 months of racing left at Aqueduct. Though racing dates for next year are not out, a plausible final day at the Big A could be June 28, if the New York Racing Association moves its Fourth of July week to Saratoga as it did this year. Once Belmont Park reopens, racing will cease at Aqueduct.
There is still time to enjoy the Big A. For the fourth straight year, Belmont Park’s fall meet will be held at Aqueduct, beginning Thursday with the first of 32 scheduled programs to be run under the moniker Belmont at the Big A. The traditional Aqueduct fall meet, consisting of 27 dates, runs from Nov. 6 to Dec. 31.
Twenty of this circuit’s final 30 graded flat stakes of 2025 are scheduled for the Belmont at the Big A meet that runs through Nov. 2 on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule. Fourteen of those graded events will be held Sept. 26 to Oct. 5 as part of a stakes program that offers 45 races worth $9.45 million.
The Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic tops five graded stakes on the Sept. 27 card that includes the Grade 3 Vosburgh, which is one of five Breeders’ Cup qualifying events offered this fall. The two-day Breeders’ Cup will be held Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
The Sept. 27 Aqueduct card also includes the Grade 2 Woodward, a race that has had its purse cut by $100,000 to $300,000 but could be used as a stepping-stone to the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.
The Champagne and Frizette – the final two Grade 1 stakes to be run on this circuit in 2025 – top five stakes (four graded) on the Oct. 4 program. The Champagne and the Grade 2 Miss Grillo on Oct. 4 offer fees-paid berths to their respective Breeders’ Cup divisions. The Grade 2 Pilgrim and Grade 3 Futurity, both held on Oct. 3, are the other BC qualifying stakes offered at the meet.
Many of the Kentucky-based horses that were seen at Saratoga have returned to their home state for the lucrative purses at Churchill Downs and then Keeneland.
There has been a different leading rider at the three previous Belmont at the Big A fall meets. Dylan Davis, the 2024 leading rider, and Manny Franco, who won the 2023 title, will both be looking to bounce back from, for them, subpar Saratoga meets.
Meanwhile, Ricardo Santana Jr. will try to build on the momentum of a spectacular Saratoga summer that saw him win 38 races, good for fourth in the standings. Saratoga’s two top leading riders, Irad Ortiz Jr. and Jose Ortiz, will be in Kentucky for the bulk of the fall. Reigning Eclipse Award winner Flavien Prat is also making Aqueduct his fall base. Jose Lezcano, who suffered a broken collarbone in a spill at Saratoga on Aug. 29, will miss at least the first half of the Belmont at the Big A fall meet.
Chad Brown has won or shared the Belmont fall training title 13 consecutive years, starting in 2012. He is coming off a Saratoga meet where he and Todd Pletcher tied for leading trainer with 32 wins. Brown went just 3 for 40 with his 2-year-olds at Saratoga. In stark contrast, Pletcher went 19 for 67 with his 2-year-olds.
Thursday’s eight-race card, which begins at 1:10 p.m., is topped by a pair of second-level/optional $45,000 claiming races for statebreds, one going 6 1/2 furlongs on dirt, the other scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf.
In the third race, on dirt, Collect the Data will try to validate the seven-length score she recorded at Saratoga in a first-level statebred allowance, which was her first start in 18 months. In January 2024, Collect the Data, a daughter of Upstart trained by Brown, won a maiden $40,000 claiming race at Aqueduct.
Army Gal, trained by Linda Rice, shortens up to a more suitable distance after being dueled into defeat going one mile at Saratoga on July 11.
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In race 7, on turf, Horacio De Paz sends out the uncoupled pair of Red Burgundy and Can’t Fool Me in a field of 10 New York-bred fillies and mares.
Red Burgundy, who won a first-level allowance in front-running fashion here in May, looks like the main speed under Santana. She finished fourth after getting involved in a pace duel in this condition on Aug. 8 at Saratoga.
If more speed develops, Can’t Fool Me could be coming late. The last time she faced New York-breds, Can’t Fool Me finished fourth in the Mount Vernon Stakes at Saratoga. Awesome Czech, who finished third that day and is also trained by De Paz, came back to win the Yaddo Stakes. Can’t Fool Me was noncompetitive in her two last two starts, both in open company.
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