NYRA to Offer $100k 2YO Graded Stakes Bonus Again in 2013

Shanghai Bobby

PHOTO/Adam Coglianese

For the second straight year, The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) will offer a $100,000 bonus to the connections of any juvenile who breaks his or her maiden during the Aqueduct Racetrack winter/spring or Belmont Park spring/summer meets and goes on to win a graded stakes at Saratoga Race Course, Belmont, or Aqueduct in 2013. The NYRA Reorganization Board approved the bonus program during its meeting on Wednesday.

“The bonus was a tremendous success last year,” said Rick Violette, Jr., president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. “It generated about 15 additional maiden races at Belmont, and certainly spurred significant interest in NYRA’s 2-year-old program. We’re pleased that NYRA is offering the bonus again this year.”

In 2012, Bern Identity and Shanghai Bobby collected the $100,000 bonus after respectively winning the Grade 2 Sanford and Grade 2 Three Chimneys Hopeful, both at Saratoga. Bern Identity broke his maiden on June 1 at Belmont in his second start, while Shanghai Bobby debuted a winner on April 19 at Aqueduct and went on to earn the Eclipse Award for Champion Two-Year-Old Male.

“New York having a quality 2-year-old racing program is essential to American racing,” said Todd Pletcher, trainer of Shanghai Bobby. “It seemed like it had slowed down in recent years in that horses were debuting later in the year, but the bonus program has created a great incentive for horsemen to prepare their horses to run earlier in the year. It showed last year when you had a horse like Shanghai Bobby run in April and go on to win the Eclipse. What the bonus has done is assure horsemen there would be plenty of 2-year-old maiden races, which has encouraged them to bring 2-year-olds to New York.”

NYRA’s 2013 graded stakes for 2-year-olds*:

*The Aqueduct winter/spring and Belmont spring/summer stakes schedules were approved by the NYRA Reorganization Board. Stakes schedules for the remainder of the year will be addressed by the Board at a later date and appear in the above schedule pending board approval. All schedules are subject to change.

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