NY Turf Sprint Championship
$200.000 6 Furlongs Turf
Three Year Olds and Upward Foaled in NY
Aqueduct October 25, 2025
It’s always nice to see new opportunities added to the stakes calendar. The NY Turf Sprint Championship is a new state bred stakes for $200.000 for three-year-olds and up. All entrants carry the same 124 pounds, and the weather forecast calls for the course to be firm. The inaugural running originally drew a field of seven. With the post draw scratch of Safe At Home we are left with six contenders looking to make history as “the first”.
1. Nick Dundee (Maxmillion Farm/E. Jamarillo) Claimed for $25.000 in June he immediately rewarded that investment with a stakes win in the $250.000 KD Preview Turf Mile. He has made two graded starts since without hitting the board, but he moves into theoretically softer state bred company where he has been successful before having taken the The Haynesfield on the dirt at Aqueduct in February of last year. His stakes wins have been at longer distances, but he has speedy sprint works on the grass. His inside post could benefit him. He broke from post eleven in his last which was a graded sprint down the hill at Santa Anita where he finished sixth but only missed by 1 length from that outside post.
2. Hickory Smooth (Onlineracingclub.com/K. Carmouche) Five-year-old gelding who has won ten races of his twenty-two starts so with almost a fifty percent winning percentage he obviously likes to compete. However, he has never hit the wire first in a stakes race. He missed by a nose to the rival directly to his inside in last year’s Haynesfield but that was at a mile and on the dirt. Claimed for $22.500 in August he is undefeated for his new trainer having won a high-level allowance sprinting on the grass in his last start. He won that in a fast time with a high SRF speed figure so the new trainer may have found his niche. He returns to the same track at the same distance with fast works and is a contender.
3. American Nightmare (D J C Racing Stables/S. Elliott) Has won his last three races including the G2 Eddie D at Santa Anita in his last outing. He was kind of on the bubble for making it into the BC Turf Sprint standing at number nineteen on the qualification standings list. With some that might have gone elsewhere or not entered he might have made it into that prestigious event, but the trainer has chosen to enter here. Those facts along with an impressive 109 world ranking rating makes him easily the one to beat in this spot.
4. The Manhunt (Simmer Down Stables/J. Lezcano) The five-year-old gelding was claimed for $16.000 in April and has won three of five starts for his new connections since. That is the good news. The bad news is that the two losing efforts have been the two times he has ventured into stakes company. He showed speed and faded against State Breds going six furlongs on the grass in The Cole Stakes in late June which was also at Aqueduct. Working lights out since his last win but can he transfer that to bully these? Has speed and if he can get things his own way on the front end he might be able to steal it.
5. Frick (High Voltage/J. Rosario) Finished ahead of The Manhunt in The Cole but, more importantly, is one of three coming out of the Eddie D where he was beaten by the other two. Is a stakes winner on the grass but not at a sprint distance. He was closing in the Eddie D where he was launching from the back even though he normally shows more speed. His SRF figures are consistently good, but he has won only one of eight this year and it seems like there might be others more formful at the moment than this veteran six-year-old.
7. Blueberry (Luz International/J.L. Ortiz) Set the Aqueduct track record for six furlongs on the turf course last month. That race was an optional claimer and this step up in class is an acid test for him. He won his last race by daylight and his six-furlong work in early October suggests he is still sharp. He is two noses away from having won four straight and he is dangerous going into his stakes debut.
It is hard to ignore the sheer class of American Nightmare in this spot having been on the verge of joining the BC party. Coming off of a widening win in the Eddie D he is the pick in this initial running of The NY Turf Sprint. Blueberry is intriguing given his track record setting race in September and I’ll put him in second for his stakes debut. Hickory Smooth is in good form, and his last race was also impressive, and I will make him the third choice.
Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded