Antiquarian, Bishops Bay headline intriguing Westchester Stakes clash at Aqueduct

Antiquarian and Bishops Bay make the Westchester look much bigger than a five-horse field. The Grade 3, $175,000 one-turn mile for older horses at Belmont at the Big A is set for Sunday, May 3, and with both Grade 1 and Grade 2 credibility on the line, it has the feel of a small race with a large ripple effect. It is also one of three $175,000 Grade 3 races on Aqueduct’s Kentucky Derby weekend card, which gives the matchup a bigger stage than the field size suggests.

Antiquarian brings the bigger name and the harder question. Todd Pletcher’s colt was eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last fall, and this is his first start back since winning the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, a performance that marked him as one of the East Coast’s elite dirt routers. He had already proved he could handle this track when he won the 2024 Grade 3 Peter Pan at Belmont at the Big A before finishing fifth in the Belmont Stakes. Centennial Farms president Don Little Jr. sounded confident about the return, saying Antiquarian “couldn’t be doing any better” and is “thriving as an older horse right now.” A half-mile move in 48.77 seconds on April 26, in company with Grade 3-placed Tuscan Sky, backed up that optimism.

Bishops Bay is the horse that makes this a real race instead of a formality. He enters as the defending Westchester champion, and his 2025 win produced a career-best 103 Beyer Speed Figure. He also arrives with a record that demands respect: six wins in six starts with Flavien Prat aboard entering this race, including the American Pharoah overnight stakes at Oaklawn, the Grade 3 Salvator Mile at Monmouth, the Westchester and the Forty Niner. Before that, he had already shown he could hang with top company when he was beaten a head by Arcangelo in the 2023 Peter Pan.

That is the chess match. Antiquarian has the Grade 1 ceiling and the comeback angle after a demanding Breeders’ Cup Classic try. Bishops Bay has the current form, the proven rider partnership and the speed figure that says he can keep stepping forward. NYRA said the Westchester is a prep for the Metropolitan Handicap, so this is more than a spring stakes on the Derby-weekend undercard. It is a clean test of whether Antiquarian can rejoin the top tier of older dirt horses, or whether Bishops Bay can keep proving that his best races still belong in the deepest company.