Condition book for Belmont Park winter meet now online

By Keith McCalmont —-

Condition book for Belmont Park winter meet now online

Empire Trillium Series begins on a December 26 program which also features four named maiden races on the undercard

ELMONT, N.Y. – The first condition book for the Belmont Park winter meet spanning Thursday, December 10 through Thursday, December 31 is now available online.

The Belmont Park winter meet is slated to continue into March with a definitive end date to be announced prior to the 2027 Wood Memorial and in conjunction with NYRA’s 2027 race dates. Throughout the winter meet, racing will be conducted exclusively on the newly-installed Tapeta surface.

The first condition book offers the opening legs of the Empire Trillium Series with the December 26 program featuring four $200,000 stakes for 2-year-olds, including the six-furlong Tiz the Law and 1 1/16-mile Gander for juveniles; as well as the six-furlong Bar of Gold and 1 1/16-mile Saratoga Dew for juvenile fillies.

The Empire Trillium Series is a 14-race program of stakes races at Belmont Park and Woodbine Racetrack restricted to horses foaled in New York or Canada and worth $3.2 million in total purses.

The December 26 undercard will also feature four named maiden events restricted to horses foaled in Canada or New York, each with a purse of $85,000 with Empire Trillium Series nominees preferred.

These four maiden races named for popular Ontario-breds include:

· the Channel Maker maiden, a six-furlong sprint for 2-year-olds, is named in honor of the multiple Grade 1-winning multimillionaire [56-10-6-5, $3.9M], who was a Champion on both sides of the border and now resides at Old Friends Equine in Georgetown, Kentucky. Channel Maker, a three-time Grade 1-winner at Belmont Park, was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame [CHRHOF] in 2024

· the Overskate maiden, a 1 1/16-mile route for 2-year-olds, celebrates Canada’s two-time Horse of the Year [1978-79], who captured graded stakes at Belmont Park [1979 Grade 2 Bowling Green] and Saratoga Race Course [1979 Grade 3 Bernard Baruch]. He was enshrined in the CHRHOF in 1993

· the Fanfreluche maiden at six furlongs for 2-year-old fillies shines a light on the talented daughter of Northern Dancer, who captured the Spa’s prestigious Alabama in 1970 en route to honors as Canada’s Champion 3-Year-Old Filly and Horse of the Year. She was inducted into the CHRHOF in 1981

· the Hard Not to Like maiden going 1 1/16-miles for juvenile fillies pays tribute to the popular grey mare that took down three Grade 1s, including the 2015 Diana at Saratoga as part of a 22-8-3-2 career while amassing more than $1.2 million in purse earnings

Overnight purses at the winter meet have been increased by 23 percent with more than $26 million in overnight purse money on offer. The average overnight purse will see a per-race increase of nearly 10 percent. Specific purse levels for the Belmont Park winter meet are published at https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/incentives/#overnightpurses.

Stall applications for the Belmont Park winter meet, which are due by November 13, are now available online at https://www.nyra.com/belmont/horsemen/.



For the Belmont Park winter meet stakes schedule, please visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/stakes-schedule/.