Run on Cigar Mile day each December at Aqueduct in New York is the Grade II Remsen Stakes, an excellent race over one mile and one furlong for two-year-old colts.
The race is the male equivalent of the Demoiselle Stakes with winners often earning short quotes for the following season’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, often challenging the previous month’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner for favouritism.
The Remsen is worth $250,000 in total prize money and has been on the NYRA stakes schedule since way back in 1904 when it was run at the nearby Jamaica Race Course until that venue closed in 1959.
Past winners of the Remsen include Northern Dancer, Salerno, Java Gold, Coronado’s Quest, Old Fashioned, Honor Code and most recently by Maximus Mischief and Shotski.