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NYRA Thanksgiving Racing Festival highlights Aqueduct fall meet

by NYRA Press Office

Winter meet's Cigar Mile Racing Festival includes four graded stakes worth $1.5 million

NYSSS Great White Way and Fifth Avenue North America's richest sire stakes

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) today announced the stakes schedule for the 22-day Aqueduct fall meet, which will run from Friday, November 1 to Sunday, December 1, and offer 22 stakes worth $3.4 million in purses.

Opening weekend of the fall meet will coincide with the Breeders' Cup, set for November 1-2, allowing horseplayers to follow the exciting action from Santa Anita Park. Fans can watch and wager at Aqueduct, with live racing on Opening Day at the Big A featuring the $150,000 Tempted for juvenile fillies.

The opening weekend stakes action continues on Saturday, November 2 with the Grade 3, $150,000 Turnback the Alarm Handicap and the Grade 3, $150,000 Nashua for 2-year-olds on November 3.

The inaugural four-day NYRA Thanksgiving Racing Festival, featuring 11 stakes worth $1.9 million in purse money, kicks off on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, highlighted by the Grade 3, $200,000 Fall Highweight Handicap for sprinters 3-years-old-and-up, with the $150,000 Winter Memories and the $100,000 Central Park also on the holiday card. Friday, November 29 will include three stakes, among them the Grade 3, $200,000 Comely.

NYRA's Thanksgiving Racing Festival continues on Saturday, November 30 with the Grade 3, $400,000 Long Island, the Grade 3, $200,000 Discovery and the $125,000 Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship. The festival concludes on Closing Day of the fall meet, Sunday, December 1, with the $125,000 Autumn Days and $100,000 Tepin.

The Aqueduct winter meeting, featuring the Cigar Mile Racing Festival, begins on Thursday, December 5. Highlighted by four graded races worth $1.5 million in purse money, the festival kicks off the first weekend of the winter meet on Saturday, December 7.

The 31st edition of the Grade 1, $750,000 Cigar Mile for 3-year-olds and up headlines a lucrative Saturday card which includes a pair of prestigious Grade 2, $250,000 nine-furlong events for juveniles in the Remsen and its filly counterpart, the Demoiselle, as well as the Grade 3, $250,000 Go For Wand Handicap for fillies and mares at a mile.

In the run up to the holiday season, the New York Stallion Stakes Series will offer a pair of rich races for 2-year-olds with the Great White Way for juvenile males set for Saturday, December 14, and the Fifth Avenue for juvenile fillies on December 15, becoming the richest sire stakes races in the country, with purses of $500,000 each.

Following the Christmas holiday, racing will return on Friday, December 27 and the stakes schedule for 2019 will conclude on Sunday, December 29, with the $100,000 Bay Ridge. 

About the New York Racing Association (NYRA)

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) holds the exclusive franchise to conduct thoroughbred racing at Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course.

NYRA tracks are the cornerstone of New York State's thoroughbred industry, which is responsible for 19,000 jobs and more than $3 billion in annual economic impact to the State.

Over the course of 219 days of live racing in 2018, NYRA generated more than $2.1 billion in all-sources wagering handle with paid attendance exceeding 1.7 million for the fifth consecutive year.