With Kentucky Derby points up for grabs, who will grasp them in the Gotham? The Gotham Stakes, won by greats like Secretariat, takes place once again tomorrow. Ten thoroughbreds will face off to try to arrive at the top of the leaderboard on the road to the KY Derby.
The Gotham Stakes race was inaugurated in 1953. It was initially held at Jamaica Racetrack until 1960. Jamaica Racetrack operated in Jamaica, Queens, New York, NY from 1903 until 1959. Its founder and first president was Eugene Wood, the man for whom the Wood Memorial Stakes is named. The Gotham Stakes is a prep race for the Wood Memorial, another big race for KY Derby points.
The Gotham Stakes have been held at Aqueduct Racetrack since the closing of the Jamaica. Aqueduct opened in 1894 in South Ozone Park in the borough of Queens. It is now the only racetrack in New York City. Aqueduct, also known as The Big A, features 3 tracks. There is an inner turf track, an inner dirt track and a main track with a chute. Aqueduct has hosted many important races throughout its long history including the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of The Triple Crown, currently held at Belmont Racetrack.
On Saturday, 3/4/17, the Gotham Stakes will take place once again. The title comes from the nickname of the city of New York. In 1807 a periodical began referring to NYC as Gotham and the name stuck. Last year Shagaf won for trainer Chad C. Brown. The Gotham Stakes has been raced at varied distances, tracks, purses and ages. The 2017 race will be a Grade 3 race on dirt for 1 and 1/16th miles (8.5 furlongs) for 3 year-olds with a purse of $300,000. The card on Gotham Day posts race 1 at 1:20 P.M. EST thru race 9 at 5:20 P.M. Two stakes races will be featured. The third race is the Heavenly Prize Invitational Stakes at 2:20 P.M., with a purse of $150,000 for 4 year-olds and older fillies and mares. The Gotham is the 8th race on the card. It will post at 4:50 P.M. The race awards 50-20-10-5 KY Derby points to the first 4 finishers. Girvin holds the top spot on the leaderboard currently with 50 points, the winner of the Gotham will thus tie or take over that spot.
Finally, the field for the Gotham is as follows by post/horse/jockey/trainer/morning-line odds:
- J Boys Echo/Robby Albarado/Dale L. Romans/8-1
- Gaetano/Cornelio H. Velasquez/Guadalupe Preciado/50-1
- Miggsy/Angel Arroyo/Rudy R. Rodriguez/15-1
- El Areeb/Trevor McCarthy/Cathal A.Lynch/6-5
- Glennrichment/Eric Cancel/Rudy R. Rodriguez/30-1
- True Timber/Kendrick Carmouche/Kiaran P. McLaughlin/6-1
- Apartfromthecrowd/Jorge A. Vargas/Chad C. Brown/12-1
- So Conflated/Mario Gutierrez/Doug F. O’Neill/8-1
- Cloud Computing/Manuel Franco/Chad C. Brown/5-1
- Action Everyday/Rajiv Maragh/Todd A. Pletcher/10-1
The favorite, El Areeb already holds 20 KY Derby points and is 4th on the leaderboard. He earned his points in the Jerome Stakes and the Withers Stakes in which he won by over 11 and 4 lengths respectively. He is on a 4 race winning steak. The only other horse already on the leaderboard in the Gotham is J Boys Echo. He is 30th on the leaderboard and has 3 KY Derby points from his third place finish in the Withers. With the large points available in this race, it is anyone’s opportunity to grasp the top of the leaderboard. Even Cloud Computing and Miggsy whom have no other starts except for each breaking their maiden in their first and only starts have a chance to score big. Miggsy is a colt sired by Hard Spun whom I recently visited at Darley. Hard Spun’s pictures are featured throughout this story.
I’ll be wishing for a safe trip for all and anxiously anticipating the shake up on the leaderboard. Please, follow me on social media and/or check back weekly for further KY Derby developments and other thoroughbred tales.
Share This: