2025 Gotham Stakes Entries at Aqueduct

Gotham awards top-five finishers 50-25-15-10-5 Kentucky Derby qualifying points

The Gotham is one of four stakes slated for Saturday March 1 at Aqueduct Racetrack and will award the top-five finishers 50-25-15-10-5 qualifying points towards the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby.

Mo Plex works towards Grade 3 Gotham

Feb 16 - R and H Stable's graded stakes-winner Mo Plex is under consideration for the Grade 3 $300,000 Gotham, a one-mile test for sophomores on March 1 or the $125,000 Gander for New York-bred sophomores at the same distance on March 8, at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The Gotham awards the top-five finishers 50-25-15-10-5 qualifying points towards the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby in May at Churchill Downs, but trainer Jeremiah Englehart said the Gander may be preferable for Mo Plex off his respite since a second to the unbeaten Sacrosanct in the one-mile state-bred Sleepy Hollow on October 27 here.

"Right now, I'm pointing him towards either the Gotham or the Gander. Probably leaning towards the Gander right now," said Englehart. "Just to see if I can kind of give him an easier spot first back off the bench.

"Eventually I would like to see him back in open company, if he is good enough, and I do think he is good enough, so I will play it by ear," Englehart added.

Mo Plex breezed a half-mile in 49.64 seconds in company with Hey Toby on Saturday over the Belmont Park dirt training track.

"He'll have a couple of works going into this, at least one more for the Gotham, two more if it's the Gander, but it seems like everything is going well," Englehart said. "In the wintertime, you are looking to keep them against the bridle and not worry so much about times. I thought he worked in a nice fashion. There was an inside horse on the rail and my inside horse had to move out into him, and he seemed to handle it pretty well."

Mo Plex's last-out second earned a career-best 80 Beyer Speed Figure, improving one tick from a third to Chancer McPatrick in the Grade 1 Champagne earlier that month. Both were respectable defeats in the eyes of Englehart.

"Chancer McPatrick is a very nice colt, he could be the leading 3-year-old this year at some point," Englehart said. "Same for Sacrosanct, I know Brad [Cox, trainer] is very high on that horse and he tipped his cap for beating us. I think he is another New York-bred who can go on and do big things."

Mo Plex, prior to his aforementioned October efforts, began his career 3-for-3 with sprint scores in Saratoga Race Course's Grade 3 Sanford and state-bred Funny Cide presented by Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, as well as his June debut here.

Scorching Aimed For 2025 Gotham at Aqueduct

Jan 5 - Paul Braverman and Timothy Pinch's Scorching will step onto the Road to the Kentucky Derby (G1) in the $300,000 Gotham (G3)on March 1 at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The one-turn mile for 3-year-olds awards Kentucky Derby qualifying points on a 50-25-15-10-5 scale to the top-five finishers.

Trained by Woodbine-based John Charalambous, the Ontario-bred son of Mo Town won the restricted Cup and Saucer on October 6 over the Woodbine Racetrack turf. He scored the victory by disqualification after Ashley's Archer got his nose down first on the wire but was ruled to have interfered with a rival in the stretch of the 1 1/16-mile race.

The Cup and Saucer came on the heels of a stylish graduation with a pacesetting five-length score in the 6 1/2-furlong restricted Simcoe in August over the Tapeta at Woodbine, with both wins receiving a career-best 80 Beyer Speed Figure.

"I think he ran a winning race," Charalambous said of the Cup and Saucer. "We just got beat the last jump and I'm still not sold that he's any better on turf. I was really happy with that race and I was happy with the way he was coming into his next race, but he developed a virus and it took him longer to get through it, so we gave him the rest of the year off. The owners made the decision to try a different route, so here we are."

Scorching arrived at Belmont Park in late December and has yet to breeze over the training track. Charalambous said he brought the colt to the New York to give him plenty of time prepare for his first start over dirt.

"Our plan is to race in the Gotham. We're just starting him back up at Belmont, and he trains on dirt in Canada and has breezed on it a bunch of times, so hopefully he can make the transition in the afternoon," Charalambous said. "We're just trying to get him fit and ready, and hopefully everything goes well."

Scorching debuted in July at Woodbine with a runner-up effort sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs over Tapeta ahead of his Simcoe score. Charalambous said he believes the dark bay can be effective at a one-turn mile.

"I didn't really think he was a sprinter," Charalambous said. "I didn't know if he could go a classic distance, but he never really trained like he was a sprinter - he always worked well, but wasn't excessively quick. The way the races came up, the timing was perfect on both his stakes wins."

As for the nearly five-month layoff Scorching will enter from, Charalambous said the colt continues to trend in the right direction towards a successful return.

"The layoff certainly did him well mentally, and he put on some weight," Charalambous said. "He's just got to get used to the track - it's deeper here than back home. It's something we have to work through, but he's in great shape and we'll take it from there."

Charalambous, who started his first runner in 1982, will look to win his first Kentucky Derby prep race and said he was pleasantly surprised when the colt's owners approached him about trying the Derby trail.

"It's exciting. I've been doing this a long time, and it caught me off guard what the plans were," Charalambous said, with a laugh. "These owners have been extremely generous with me and have rewarded me with good horses to train, so it would be nice if we had a bit of racing luck. I think this is a very good horse. He acts the part, too. If he stays healthy, I think he's going to show us a little bit more."

Bred in Ontario by Huntington Stud Farm Corp., Scorching was purchased for $88,551 at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's 2023 Canadian-bred Yearling Sale. He is out of the stakes-placed Consolidator mare Samsal, who also produced Grade 3-placed Keep Grinding.

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