Gulfstream Park championship meet will feature 27 graded stakes
Gulfstream Park’s 2025-26 championship meet will offer a stakes schedule with 68 stakes, 27 graded, worth $15.2 million in purses, highlighted by the Grade 1, $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational and the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1) on Jan. 24 and the $1 million Florida Derby (G1) on March 28.
The meet will begin Thanksgiving Day, Nov.27, and run through March 29. Stall applications for the 84-day meet are due Sunday, Sept. 28.
The Pegasus World Cup day program will offer 10 stakes worth $5.55 million in purses. The 1 1/8-mile Pegasus World Cup, the richest dirt race in the U.S. for older horses outside of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and the Pegasus World Cup Turf, a 1 1/8-mile stakes for 4-year-olds and up on turf, are among seven graded stakes on a program that includes the $500,000 Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf Invitational (G2), a 1 1/16-mile turf stakes for older fillies and mares.
Pegasus World Cup day also includes the 1 1/2-mile W.L. McKnight (G3) for 4-year-olds and up and the newly christened 1 1/2-mile Christophe Clement (G3) named after the late trainer who won his first graded stakes race at Gulfstream and six editions of the race formerly known as the La Prevoyante (G3).
The Florida Derby will headline a program with 10 stakes, five graded, worth $2.45 million in purses. Forty-six starters in the 1 1/8-mile event for 3-year-olds have gone on to win a remarkable 62 Triple Crown races, including 26 runnings of the Kentucky Derby. The Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2), a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies, also will be featured on the Florida Derby undercard along with the Orchid (G3), Ghostzapper (G3) and Pan American (G3).
Tappan Street won last year’s Florida Derby by 1 1/4 lengths over Sovereignty, who has gone on to win the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, Jim Dandy (G2) and Travers (G1).
The road to the Florida Derby begins in earnest Jan. 31 with the running of the Holy Bull (G3), a 1 1/16-mile stakes for 3-year-olds that will headline a card of five stakes, including the Forward Gal (G3), a seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies.
The Fountain of Youth (G2), a 1 1/16-mile dress rehearsal for the Florida Derby won by Sovereignty last winter and eventual Belmont Stakes winner Dornoch in 2024, will be featured on a Feb. 28 program with nine stakes, eight graded, worth $1.8 million in purses. The Davona Dale (G2), a mile event for 3-year-old fillies, the Gulfstream Park Mile (G2), a mile stakes for 4-year-olds and up, and the Mac Diarmida (G2), a 1 3/8-mile turf stakes for 4-year-olds and up, will be featured on the Fountain of Youth undercard.
Gulfstream has 38 stakes races scheduled for the grass. Five turf stakes, four graded, will be run on Pegasus World Cup day, and six turf stakes, five graded, will be contested on Fountain of Youth day. Gulfstream’s Dec. 20 program will include the Fort Lauderdale (G3), Suwannee River and Janus scheduled on the turf.
The 2025-26 Championship Meet stakes schedule will be kicked off with the Wait a While, a 7 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies on turf Nov. 27 on a Thanksgiving weekend that will feature the $600,000 finals of the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes Series Nov. 29. Florida-bred 2-year-olds will contest the 1 1/16-mile In Reality, and Florida-bred juvenile fillies will run in the 1 1/16-mile My Dear Girl.
The Fort Lauderdale, Harlan’s Holiday (G3) and Suwannee River, which have served as prep races for Pegasus World Cup day, will be contested Dec. 20.