The 2025 Belmont at The Big A fall meet is set to kick-off on Thursday (9/11) at Aqueduct Park.

The top horses, jockeys, and trainers will converge on Belmont at the Big A for some of the season’s best turf racing, as well as a batch of top-notch 2-year-olds, with lots of prime wagering opportunities.

East coast racing fans can expect nearly two months (32 racing days) of high-class racing and wagering Thursdays through Sundays.

The season will have plenty to offer horseplayers with a Stakes program stacked with a total of 45 Stakes with purses of $9.45 million dollars, including five Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, Win and You’re In races.

What to expect at this year’s Belmont at The Big A ? Let’s take a look at some recent trends and tendencies.

TRAINERS: Chad Brown and Todd Pletcher are coming off excellent showings at the 2025 Saratoga summer meet, which bodes well for their prospects this fall at Belmont at the Big A. Brown and Pletcher tied for the Saratoga training title with 32 wins apiece.

Linda Rice was next in New York’s summer trainer standings at Saratoga with 24 wins.

In last year’s Belmont at the Big A fall meet Brown and Rice finished one-two on the leaderboard with Brown winning the title with 31 wins from 118 starters for 26%. Rice was in second with 18 wins (18%). It should be noted that Pletcher was very quiet at this meet last fall with six wins from 63 starters (10%).

JOCKEYS: Brothers, Irad and Jose Ortiz ruled the Saratoga standings with Irad coming out on top to win his 4th Spa riding title in a row and his seventh overall.

Jose was clearly 2nd in the standings at Saratoga, but he will not be an everyday ride at Belmont at the Big A as he is once again slated to ride mostly in Kentucky through the fall.

The champion rider from Belmont at the Big A Fall meet last year was Dylan Davis, who won 44 races from 211 mounts for 21%. Kendrick Carmouche was the second-leading rider with 34 wins (17%), and Manny Franco also did well with 27 wins (14%). 

Flavien Prat finished 4th last fall with 24 wins (21%), but he has been riding even more often this year for leading trainer Chad Brown and should see his win stats go up. 

Irad Ortiz had only 102 mounts at last year’s fall meet and finished 5th in the standings with 18 wins (18%).

Other jockeys vying for spots in the top 10 in the standings will include Junior Alvarado, who rides first call for Bill Mott, Joel Rosario, and Ricardo Santana.

Hall of Famer John Velazquez takes fewer mounts but can be expected to win at a high percentage and often thrives aboard Pletcher-trained 2-year-olds.

DIRT TRENDS: There have been 188 dirt sprints run at the last two Belmont at the Big A meets, including this spring and last fall, and those races have been exceptionally speed favoring. Speed horses racing on or close to the pace within a length of the lead won 116 of the 188 dirt sprints to account for 62% of the races.

Closers won just 21 times to account for only 11% of the wins in dirt sprints. Post positions played fairly in sprints with horses from inside, middle, and outside posts all having near equal chances.

Dirt miles and dirt route races are very different on the Aqueduct track because mile races are run around one turn and the routes go two turns.

There have been 109 dirt miles run since last year and the advantage in those Belmont at the Big A races went to speed horses and horses breaking from the three inside posts (1-3).

Horses on or close to the pace won 52 of the 109 dirt miles to account for 48%. Closers, meanwhile, did the worst with just 16 wins for just 15% of the races.

In terms of post positions, horses from the three inside posts enjoyed the advantage, winning 57 of the 109 dirt miles to account for 52%.

Almost all two-turn dirt routes at Belmont at the Big A are run at 1 1/8 miles. There have been 26 of those at Belmont at the Big A races since last fall.

Post positions were mainly fair, as were running styles with the exception of a slight advantage going to speed horses that accounted for wins in 11 of the 26 races.

TURF TIPS: Aqueduct features both outer and inner turf courses. Turf sprints are run at six furlongs on the outer course, which also runs races at one mile, 1 1/16 miles, 1 1/8 miles, and the occasional 1 3/16 miles. Inner turf races are run at one mile, 1 1/16 miles, 1 1/8 miles, 1 3/8 miles, and 1 ½ miles.

There’s about three times as many routes run on the inner turf than on the outer.

At the last two Belmont at the Big A meets the inner turf route preferential running style has gone to closers coming from more than four lengths off the pace, who won 40 of the 101 inner turf routes. Speed horses, by comparison, won 28 of the 101 races.

In terms of post positions, horses from the inside posts (1-3) did best with wins in 43 of the 101 races. Not surprisingly, the outside posts (7+) did the worst with 25 wins in the 101 races.

There have been only 32 turf routes run on the outer course dating to last fall at Belmont at the Big A meets, which is a small sample size.

Those races were mainly fair with the slight advantages going to stalkers in terms of running style, and middle posts 4-6 in terms of post positions.

Most of the action on the outer turf course happens in sprints at six furlongs. Belmont at the Big A has hosted 80 turf sprints dating back to last fall and with an average field size of nine runners per race.

Post positions played exceptionally fair with horses having good chances from inside, middle, and outside posts.

The main bias in Belmont at the Big A turf sprints has been in terms of running styles with the course favoring speed horses. Runners on or close to the pace won 42 of the last 80 turf sprints since last fall for 52.5%.

Closers are at a disadvantage with wins in just 11 of the 80 races to account for just 14% of the turf sprints.

There you have it. Now go forth and multiply…your money at Belmont at The A.