NYRA Delays Aqueduct Turf Season Two Weeks Due To Winter Damage

The New York Racing Association announced Saturday that Aqueduct Racetrack's 2026 turf season will open April 16, a two-week delay from the original April 3 start date, with heavy snowfall in January and February and persistent cold overnight temperatures in March combining to damage the grass surface beyond readiness.

The postponement reshuffles the first turf stakes of the season as well. The $150,000 Plenty of Grace Stakes, which had been scheduled for April 4, moves to April 17. Nominations for the race will remain open through April 4, giving connections time to adjust their plans around the new calendar.

Even with the delay, NYRA noted that the 2026 turf season is still on track to begin earlier than it did in either 2024 or 2025, a benchmark that underscores how brutal this particular winter proved for turf maintenance in the New York metropolitan area.

The turf delay lands inside a broader spring meet structure that remains otherwise intact. The Aqueduct winter meet closes March 29, and the spring meet opens April 2 and runs through April 26 on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule, offering 15 live race days in total. Only the grass component is pushed; dirt racing proceeds as planned.

The winter that damaged Aqueduct's turf surface also disrupted racing across the region. NYRA had already canceled live racing at Aqueduct for a three-day stretch earlier in the season, citing arctic temperatures and extremely low wind-chill values forecast for the New York area. In coordination with the Jockeys' Guild, the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, and New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc., NYRA sought formal approval from the New York State Gaming Commission to conduct live racing on February 4 as a make-up date, with additional recovery days to be determined.

Aqueduct was not alone. Charles Town Races in West Virginia canceled its Wednesday card due to extreme cold, with track officials monitoring forecasts before committing to Thursday. Turfway Park in Northern Kentucky scrapped both its Wednesday and Thursday programs after the National Weather Service projected wind-chill values for the region would stay in the single digits for 48 hours, dipping as low as minus 11 degrees on Wednesday. Turfway officials were set to assess Friday and Saturday conditions midweek.

For trainers and owners pointing toward the Plenty of Grace Stakes, the April 4 nominations deadline holds regardless of the race's new date of April 17, which means the scheduling change creates no grace period on the paperwork side. The new turf opener on April 16 gives the surface roughly two additional weeks to recover from a winter that, by NYRA's own account, left it in no condition to host racing any sooner.