Championship Meet Kicks Off Thursday with 8-Race Program

Wait a While Stakes Tops Card with 11:15 a.m. First-Race Post

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – The 2025-2026 Championship Meet at Gulfstream Park will get underway Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 27 with an eight-race program featuring the $100,000 Wait a While Stakes.

Post time for Race 1 is set at 11:15 a.m. on the first of 84 racing days during the prestigious fall/winter meet that brings together Thoroughbred racing’s best trainers, jockeys and horses and will feature the 10th anniversary of Pegasus World Cup Day and the 75th running of the Florida Derby (G1).

The Wait a While, a 7 ½-furlong stakes for 2-year-old fillies on Gulfstream’s freshly renewed turf course carded as Race 8, attracted a field of 10 (plus an also-eligible), including Brian Lynch-trained Sister Troienne, who has won her first two starts on turf at Churchill Downs and Keeneland going away by 4 ½ and 3 ½ lengths. Mario Gutierrez will be at Gulfstream to ride the daughter of Munnings, who had previously finished third on dirt in her debut at Ellis Park.

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who starts a bid to collect a fifth Championship Meet title in a row Thursday, entered three in the Wait a While, including Spirit Doll, who captured the Oct. 25 Our Dear Peggy by 6 ½ lengths in her turf debut. Brad Cox-trained Amberglen, an Irish-bred filly who won her career debut on turf at Keeneland Oct. 23, will make her stakes debut in the Wait a While, the first of 68 stakes worth $15.3 million during the Championship Meet.

The Wait a While will be supported on the Opening Day program by a well-stocked $58,000 optional claiming allowance for fillies and mares in Race 5. Lynch is also well- represented in the five-furlong dash on turf by Moon Spun, a 4-year-old daughter of Hard Spun who broke her maiden at Gulfstream last season and who is coming off an allowance win at Keeneland. Riley Mott-trained Kuwaitya, an Irish-bred 3-year-old filly who won her U.S. debut at Keeneland before finishing a close-up fourth at Churchill Downs last time out, will seek a rebound at Gulfstream. David Fawkes-trained Greenfield Cougar is expected to make a strong bid for a fourth consecutive victory.

Live racing during the Championship Meet will be conducted four days a week, Thursdays through Sundays through the first week of January, with the exception of Christmas week when the track will race Wednesday, Dec. 24 and will be closed Thursday, Dec. 25. Thereafter, Gulfstream will host five days of racing each week, Wednesdays through Sundays through the end of the meet.