NYRA announces stakes schedule for the 2026 Aqueduct spring meet

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) today announced the stakes schedule for the 2026 spring meet at Aqueduct Racetrack, which will feature 12 stakes worth more than $2.6 million in total purses.

Stakes action at the 15-day Aqueduct spring meet, which spans Thursday, April 2, to Sunday April 26, kicks off with the Wood Memorial Day card on Saturday, April 4. The lucrative card features six stakes topped by the 101st running of the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial. The nine-furlong test for 3-year-olds will offer 100-50-25-15-10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the top-five finishers. 

Wood Memorial Day will also feature the Grade 2, $300,000 Carter at seven-furlongs for older horses, as well the Grade 3, $200,000 Gazelle at nine furlongs for sophomore fillies offering 100-50-25-15-10 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points to the top-five finishers. Completing the day’s stakes action are the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff, a seven-furlong contest for older fillies and mares; the Listed $150,000 Excelsior at 10 furlongs for older horses; and the Listed $150,000 Plenty of Grace at one-mile on turf for older fillies and mares.

Stakes action continues on Saturday, April 11 with a pair of $200,000 New York Stallion Stakes Series events at 6 1/2-furlongs on the main track – the Mind Your Biscuits [previously the Times Square] for eligible state-sired sophomores and the Fourstar Crook [previously the Park Avenue] for eligible state-sired sophomore fillies.

The re-named stakes honor two of the highest earning state-sired horses of each sex, with Mind Your Biscuits banking in excess of $4.2 million and Fourstar Crook earning over $1.6 million.

Mind Your Biscuits, a New York-bred Posse chestnut, won the Grade 1 Malibu and Grade 2 Amsterdam for trainer Robert Falcone, Jr., before a tenure with conditioner Chad Summers that included back-to-back wins in the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen from 2017-18 at Meydan Race Course. Overall, he built a 25-8-10-3 record with his last win being a dominant score in the 2018 Grade 3 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs.

Fourstar Crook, a New York-bred Freud bay trained by Chad Brown, won 12-of-20 career starts, including the 2018 Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational at Belmont Park. The late-running mare captured that year’s Grade 2 New York there, Grade 2 Hillsborough at Tampa Bay Downs and the 2017 Grade 3 Dr. James Penny Memorial at Parx Racing. She proved her mettle in the highest levels of open-company in a career that also included four New York-bred stakes wins for fillies and mares.

The Listed $150,000 Bay Shore, a seven-furlong sprint for sophomores, will be run on Saturday, April 18, followed by the state-bred $135,000 Biogio’s Rose at one-mile for older fillies and mares on Sunday, April 19.

Rounding out the spring meet stakes schedule are a pair of $150,000 turf stakes at one-mile with the Woodhaven for sophomores on Saturday, April 25, and the Listed Memories of Silver for 3-year-old fillies on Sunday, April 26.

For the complete spring meet stakes schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/stakes-schedule/.