Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct 2024

Run on the same early April afternoon as other top races such as the Carter Handicap at Aqueduct Racecourse, the Gazelle Stakes is a Grade II event for three-year-old fillies on the dirt track over a mile and one furlong.

With a purse of some $300,000 up for grabs in total, the Gazelle features some of the very best sophomore fillies on the eastern seaboard and beyond, a fact especially true now since it is run as a conditions event and not a handicap. The last handicap renewal took place in 2004 while the race itself has been in existence since 1887.

Fillies landing this race are often seen as top contenders for the subsequent Breeders’ Cup Distaff where they can meet the older mares, though the race has actually been downgraded to GII status having been a Grade I race until 2012. The quickest ever Gazelle was won by Maud Muller back in 1974.