Beginning March 6, Aqueduct Racetrack will have a first-race post time of 1:20 p.m. The post time will remain in effect for the remainder of the meet, which ends April 27.
Currently, the first-race post time at Aqueduct is 12:25 p.m., with doors at the racetrack and the Belmont Café opening at 11 a.m. Aqueduct and Belmont will continue to open at 11 a.m. after March 6.
"With more daylight time, we have the ability to start our races a little later, which gives our guests and horseplayers all over the country more time to handicap and adjust to race conditions," said Martin Panza, senior vice president of racing operations for the New York Racing Association, in a release. "We also hope the change will make our signal more visible to bettors outside the Eastern time zone. We'll continue to do our best to coordinate our post times with those of other prominent tracks to reduce conflicts and help horseplayers follow our races."
Live racing reverts to a five-days-per-week schedule in March, with racing scheduled on a Thursday-Monday basis. Racing will be held Wednesday-Sunday in April. Aqueduct and Belmont will be dark on Palm Sunday (April 13) and Easter Sunday (April 20).
Aqueduct will host the Gotham Stakes (gr. III), Top Flight Handicap (gr. II), and Tom Fool Handicap (gr. III) March 1 with a first-race post of 12:25 p.m. The Wood Memorial (gr. I) and three other stakes will be conducted April 5. Post time on Wood Memorial Day is scheduled for 1:20 p.m.