The Ticonderoga
$200.000 1 1/16 Mile Inner Turf
NY Bred Filles and Mares 3 Year Olds and Upward
Aqueduct October 25, 2025
The twenty second running of the Ticonderoga will be run at a mile and sixteenth on the inner turf at Aqueduct this Saturday. A $200.000 purse for NY bred fillies and mares has only drawn a small field of five so there is a great opportunity here for someone to pick up a nice chunk of change along with prestigious black type that adds to value in the breeding market. Who of the five will take the prize?
1. Pollards Game (La Canada Racehorses/J. Rosario) Has run at this level before and been competitive but has never taken home a stakes win. The four-year-old appears to be in good form and the trainer keeps her at a surface and distance she appears to like. Good post to employ her stalking style. Sharp works say she could breakthrough.
2. Starry Starry Nights (D J C Racing Stables/S. Elliott) Graded stakes places on the grass as a two-year-old but, like the rival inside of her, she also has come close but never hit the wire first at stakes level. Disregard her last State-Bred stakes effort as that was on an off track and the weather forecast for Saturday is for a firm track. Three-year-old gets the age weight break. She is consistent but I don’t know if she is the best at this distance.
3. Barewolf (Maxmillion Farms/K.Carmouche) Purchases for $88.000 at the beginning of the year she has only come to the gate three times for her new connections. She has won half of her starts and has never been worse than third. Only tested once at this level in a turf spring in June but she hit the board in that one and may be better suited to going a route of ground. Sharp works, Smokey bred, carefully managed. Seems well spotted.
4. Stink Eye (TwinTowersRacing/R.M. Hernandez) One win by daylight in a MSW as a two-year-old and has been very aggressively placed since then with mixed results. Placed third in the G1 Spinaway as a two-year-old but has not repeated that success. This will be her first try at the state bred stakes level so there is definitely a bit of class relief. Her form is hard to gauge but her last work looks good, and she may appreciate the softer company.
5. Sandrine (Onlineracingclub.com/F. Prat) She is a four times stakes winner and is, in fact, the only stakes winner in the field. As a stakes winner she carries high weight in the field of 126 pounds. She has carried that weight to a stakes win before so it is not beyond her. Finished behind Pollards Game in their last with the same two-pound weight difference. A smaller field might give her more room to run her race. She has shown she can win on the front end, and she has speed from the outside if the trainer wants to use it. Class of the field.
Sandrine is the obvious class of the field, but I am intrigued with newcomer Barewolf and will make Barewolf the pick over Sandrine with Pollards Game picking up the third-place check. Side note: D J C Racing Stables, the trainer of Starry Starry Night, has won this race five times previously and is going for number six. With a small field of five it really could be anyone’s race.
Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded