BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Gulfstream Park’s 2025-2026 Championship Meet will offer a stakes schedule with 68 stakes, 27 graded, worth $15.2 million in purses, highlighted by the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (Grade 1) and the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1) Jan. 24 and the $1 million Curlin Florida Derby (G1) March 28.
Gulfstream’s annual Championship Meet, the winter home of Thoroughbred racing’s most accomplished horses, trainers and jockeys, will begin Thanksgiving Day, Nov.27 and run through March 29.
Stall applications for the 84-day meet are due Sunday, Sept. 28.
The 10th Pegasus World Cup Day program will offer 10 stakes worth $5.55 million in purses. The mile-and-one-eighth Pegasus World Cup, the richest dirt race in the U.S. for older horses outside of the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), and the Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1), a mile-and-one-eighth stakes for 4-year-olds and older on turf, are among seven graded stakes on a program that includes the $500,000 Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf Invitational (G2), a mile-and-one-sixteenth turf stakes for older fillies and mares.
Pegasus World Cup Day also includes the mile-and-one-half W.L. McKnight (G3) for 4-year-olds and older and the newly christened mile-and-one-half 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 Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational Series has welcomed legendary Thoroughbred racehorses, including Arrogate (Longines 2016 World’s Best Racehorse and inaugural 2017 Pegasus World Cup Invitational winner), two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome, and Horses of the Year Gun Runner, Knicks Go and Bricks and Mortar; Preakness (G1) winner National Treasure; Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) winner City of Light and Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mystik Dan. Six of the nine previous Pegasus World Cup Invitational winners have also won Breeders’ Cup races. Meanwhile, the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational has welcomed horses from Japan, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and South America.
Pegasus World Cup Day has also been a premier event on the Miami and South Florida social calendars. Post-race performances have included Post Malone, Black Coffee, Calvin Harris and Snoop Dogg while celebrities attending have included Jennifer Lopez, Camila Cabello, Pharrell Williams, Lenny Kravitz and Usher.
The 75th Curlin Florida Derby will headline a program with 10 stakes, five graded, worth $2.45 million in purses. Forty-six starters in the mile-and-one-eighth event for 3-year-olds have gone on to win a remarkable 62 Triple Crown races, including 26 Kentucky Derbys. The $250,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2), a mile-and-one-sixteenth race for 3-year-old fillies, will also be featured on the Florida Derby undercard along with the Orchid (G3), Ghostzapper (G3) and Pan American (G3) presented by Rood & Riddle.
Tappan Street won last year’s Florida Derby by a length-and-a-quarter ahead of Sovereignty, who has gone on to win the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes (G1), Jim Dandy (G2) and Travers (G1).
The Road to the Curlin Florida Derby begins in earnest Jan. 31 with the running of the $250,000 Holy Bull (G3), a mile-and-one-sixteenth stakes for 3-year-olds that will headline a card of five stakes, including the $150,000 Forward Gal (G3), a seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies.
The $400,000 Coolmore Fountain of Youth (G2), a mile-and-one-sixteenth dress rehearsal for the Curlin 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 $200,000 Davona Dale (G2), a mile event for 3-year-old fillies, the $200,000 Gulfstream Park Mile (G2), a mile stakes for 4-year-olds and up, and the $200,000 Mac Diarmida (G2), a mile-and-three-eighths turf stakes for 4-year-olds and older, will be featured on the Fountain of Youth undercard.
Once again, Gulfstream will be the place for turf racing with 38 stakes races scheduled for the grass. Five turf stakes, four graded, will be run on Pegasus World Cup Day while 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 2025-2026 Championship Meet stakes schedule will be kicked off with the $100,000 Wait a While, a seven-and-a-half-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies on turf, Nov. 27 on a Thanksgiving Day Weekend that will feature the $600,000 finals of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Associatoin Florida Sire Stakes series Nov. 29. Florida-bred 2-year-olds will contest the mile-and-one-sixteenth In Reality, while Florida-bred juvenile fillies will run in the My Dear Girl at the same distance.
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.
Click here for the Championship Meet stakes schedule.
Return to the September 11 issue of Wire to Wire
