Gotham Stakes

Stablemates Iron Honor (Nyquist) and Ottinho (Quality Road) worked four furlongs in :48.00 (10/184) in company over the Belmont Park dirt training track Saturday. The former is expected to line up in the May 16 GI Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park and the latter remains possible for the June 6 GI Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. Iron Honor, owned by St. Elias Stable, William Lawrence, and Glassman Racing, won the Feb. 28 GIII Gotham Stakes and was most recently a troubled seventh in the Apr. 4 GII Wood Memorial....

Glen Eden. She says it's every bit as picturesque as it sounds. Two hundred acres across a valley in Chester, New Jersey: hunters and jumpers, 50 stalls, an indoor ring, another two outdoors. And a bunch of kids wanting to ride ponies. Nice, rural, domestic scene, a world away from the blue-collar grit of Aqueduct. Now, to be fair, horses take a ton of work wherever you are and whatever you're doing. "I mean, the sport-horse trainers, just like the racehorse trainers, it's a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week job," Kathy Kunsman points...

By now, no doubt, it must be among my most wearily familiar complaints. Only last week, in fact, I was again lamenting the days when old-school trainers would start Classic campaigns round one turn, gaining sharpness and conditioning without entering a stress zone. Nowadays those benefits are forfeited by the twin imperatives of hiding horses in their stalls, even as they need GI Kentucky Derby points. Those points being unavailable in sprints, the defining test of the American Thoroughbred has duly been shorn of raw speed. Other traditionalists presumably shared...

When a field of 10 enters the starting gate for Saturday's GII Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park, they'll sure have some big shoes to fill. Twelve months ago, Sovereignty (Into Mischief) embarked on what would become a Horse of the Year campaign with a narrow victory in his seasonal debut and a little more than two months later, joined Spectacular Bid (1979), Thunder Gulch (1995) and Orb (2013) as horses to add the GI Kentucky Derby in the last half-century. Horses such as Union Rags (2012) and...

Cash is King and LC Racing's Mailata (Maximus Mischief), a romping 19-length winner of the Parx Future Stakes Dec. 30, will now aim to garner some GI Kentucky Derby points in the GIII Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct Feb. 28. Butch Reid cross-entered the colt in the Jan. 3 Jerome Stakes before opting to remain at his Parx base for the seven-furlong Future Stakes--where he faced just two rivals--and the trainer expects to bypass the nine-furlong Withers Stakes Jan. 31 and wait for the one-turn mile Gotham a month later. "It's...

The stakes schedule for the 2026 winter meet at Aqueduct Racetrack will include 20 stakes races worth more than $3.1 million in total purses, the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) announced Wednesday. The 2026 Aqueduct winter meet will open Wednesday, Jan. 1 and continue through Sunday, Mar. 30. The winter meet will offer 45 live race days in total. The centerpiece of the winter meet stakes calendar is the Saturday, Feb. 28 card offering four stakes, led by the one-mile Grade III, $300,000 Gotham, providing 50-25-15-10-5 Kentucky Derby qualifying...

GIII Gotham Stakes winner Flood Zone (Frosted), a new addition last week to the TDN Derby Top 12 after a 98 Beyer figure in the Aqueduct race, will reportedly be routed to the Apr. 5 G2 UAE Derby at Meydan, according to a post on X from DRF's Marcus Hersh. Trainer Brad Cox had also been considering the Mar. 29 GI Florida Derby and the Apr. 5 GII Wood Memorial Stakes for Flood Zone, who made his first start for the Cox barn in the Gotham after he was purchased...

Purchased privately by Wathnan Racing and transferred to Brad Cox following a sharp maiden win at second asking at Gulfstream Park Jan. 4, Flood Zone (Frosted) posted a 17-1 upset for his new connections in Saturday's GIII Gotham S. going a one-turn mile at the Big A. Sent to the front by Reylu Gutierrez, the blinkered bay was content to slot back into a three-wide and pressing third through an opening quarter in :23.86. He hooked up with unbeaten New York-bred and favored 'TDN Rising Star' Sand Devil (Violence) on...

Multiple stakes winner Scorching (Mo Town), aiming for his graded stakes debut in the Mar. 1 GIII Gotham Stakes, worked five furlongs in 1:04.22 (5/7) over the dirt training track at Belmont Park Saturday for trainer John Charalambous. It was the fourth local work for the Ontario-bred colt, who is stabled in the barn of trainer Michael Miceli. "He went by himself, and he breezed well," Charalambous said. "The track was slow. Sahin Civaci was supposed to breeze him, but he's hurt, so we called an audible and put one...

Deterministic (Liam's Map) exited his victory in the GIII Gotham S. at Aqueduct Saturday in fine shape and connections are still mulling a possible next start for the sophomore. "He came back in good order. We're very much enjoying the fact that he won the Gotham yesterday. It was a very strong performance and we're happy with the way he looks this morning," trainer Christophe Clement said Sunday. "We will probably ship him to Florida this week. He's done very well in Florida and the weather is more under control....

Slider (Jimmy Creed), third last out in the GII San Vincente S. to Nysos (Nyquist), will miss Saturday's Gotham S. at Aqueduct with a bruised left front foot, according to part-owners Rob Murphy and West Point Thoroughbreds' Terry Finley. Murphy, one of the West Point Partners, said that Slider had shipped to New York on Tuesday to prepare for the race, but came up with the issue Friday morning. Finley, a partner in the horse, said that X-rays of Slider's foot and ankle had come up negative. Slider broke his...

Hall Racing, Pearl Racing and West Point Thoroughbreds' Slider (Jimmy Creed) will ship east in search of additional qualifying Kentucky Derby points in Saturday's GIII Gotham S. at Aqueduct. Winner of the Speakeasy S. over the turf at Santa Anita last October, Slider was ninth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. He returned to the main track to be third in the Jan. 6 GII San Vicente S. last time out. Trained by John Sadler, Slider turned in bullet five-furlong work in :59.00 (1/121) at Santa Anita Sunday....