2026 Carter Stakes Entries at Aqueduct

Book'em Danno (Atlantic Six Racing), the reigning Champion Male Sprinter, will make his seasonal debut in the Grade 2, $300,000 Carter Stakes, a seven-furlong sprint for older horses, at Aqueduct Racetrack on Saturday, April 4.

The Carter, slated as Race 6, is one of five stakes on a blockbuster card headlined by the 101st running of the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial [Race 12], a nine-furlong route for sophomores offering 100-50-25-15-10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points. Also on the docket are the Grade 3, $200,000 Gazelle [Race 11] - a 100-50-25-15-10 qualifier for the Kentucky Oaks, the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff [Race 10] and the Listed $150,000 Excelsior [Race 3].

First post on the 12-race program is 12:40 p.m. Eastern.

Book'em Danno [post 2, Paco Lopez, 124 pounds], trained by Derek Ryan, took home Eclipse Award honors as well as his third successive New Jersey-bred Horse of the Year title on the back of a four-win campaign that included a trio of graded scores at Saratoga Race Course.

The 5-year-old Bucchero gelding secured his first Grade 1 win when taking the Woody Stephens presented by Mohegan Sun in June 2024 at Saratoga and last summer added the Grade 3 True North in June, Grade 2 Alfred G. Vanderbilt in July and Grade 1 Forego in August to a sparkling Spa ledger to conclude his campaign.

Ryan said Book'em Danno, who has won his seasonal debut in each of his previous three seasons of racing, is thriving.

"The break has done him the world of good. He's bigger and stronger. He's developed into a big horse. He's training better this year than last," Ryan said.

Book'em Danno has posted a strong series of works over the Tampa Bay Downs dirt, including a three-eighths gate breeze in 37 seconds flat under returning rider Paco Lopez on March 27 before shipping north to Belmont Park.

"It went good. He's good to go. Everything is going to plan," Ryan said. "I don't crank them. He'll run his race, but he'll have a lot of improvement from it, too."

Ryan said he will pick his spots with Book'em Danno this year mindful of a campaign that will include a return to the Spa where he earned a career-best 111 Beyer Speed Figure for his 2 1/2-length Vanderbilt score.

"I think that was his best race," Ryan said of the Vanderbilt effort. "He won't run in all three races this year, it's very tough. He'll run four or five times. They say their 5-year-old year is their best year, hopefully they're right."

The eight-time stakes winner is out of the unraced Ghostzapper mare Adorabella, who also produced dual stakes-winner Girl Trouble. He has banked in excess of $1.8 million via a 16-10-3-1 ledger and is named after the catchphrase from the television show Hawaii Five-O.

Repole Stable's Be You [post 4, Kendrick Carmouche, 122 pounds] has won three of his last four starts, the lone defeat coming to rising star Knightsbridge in a salty optional-claiming event here in November.

Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, the 5-year-old Curlin gelding earned a Grade 1-placing as a juvenile when third in the 2023 Grade 1 American Pharoah going two turns at Santa Anita Park. His lone sophomore score came in a seven-furlong maiden sprint at Gulfstream Park in March 2024 one month before landing off-the-board in the nine-furlong Grade 1 Blue Grass, at Keeneland.

Be You has been near perfect since returning from a more than one-year layoff in October at Keeneland where he closed from 10th-of-11 and 6 3/4-lengths off the pace to notch a seven-furlong allowance win. He followed with the aforementioned closing try versus Knightsbridge before being elevated to victory in a one-turn mile optional-claimer in December here when he made a strong stretch run and checked off the heels of his drifting out stablemate Donegal Surges, who crossed the wire first and was subsequently disqualified for interference.

Last out, Be You earned his first career stakes win with a stalking 1 3/4-length score over Doc Sullivan in the seven-furlong Listed Toboggan on February 6.

Pletcher said a focus on one-turn events has benefitted Be You.

"It seems like this is what he wants to do," Pletcher said. "He's been able to be effective at longer and shorter distances, but I feel like seven furlongs is really his sweet spot."

Be You worked a half-mile in 49.10 Saturday over the Belmont Park training track.

"He's been doing well in the morning," said Pletcher, who has won this event previously with Forest Danger [2005], Bishop Court Hill [2006] and Army Mule [2018].

The $320,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase is out of the graded stakes-winning Congrats mare Jacaranda, who is a half-sister to the Pletcher-trained dual Grade 1-winner and current WinStar Farm stallion Constitution.

Five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown will saddle the undefeated multiple stakes-winner Rated by Merit [post 5, Manny Franco, 122 pounds], who is a perfect 5-for-5.

St. Elias Stable's Florida homebred Rated by Merit, in his first start for Brown, made a winning return from a more than 10-month layoff in October at Belmont at the Big A to capture the $125,000 Discovery, a one-turn mile restricted to 3-year-olds yet to have won a graded race at one-mile or over in 2025.

The last-out winning effort, which saw the 4-year-old Battalion Runner colt best stablemate Wise Up by 1 1/4-lengths under returning rider Manny Franco, earned a career-best 106 Beyer. He has trained into this event at Payson Park in Florida, including a half-mile breeze in 49.20 on March 28.

Rated by Merit, who reportedly required time off for bone bruising ahead of the Discovery, made his first four starts as a juvenile in 2024 at Gulfstream Park in the care of trainer Michael Yates. His victories included restricted stakes scores for registered Florida-sired horses in the six-furlong Dr. Fager, the seven-furlong Affirmed and the 1 1/16-mile In Reality.

Rated by Merit is out of the winning Speightstown mare Banner Waving, while his second dam, Freedom Flag, is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Revolutionary. His third dam is Grade 1-winner Runup the Colors.

A talented field includes dual graded stakes-placed Quint's Brew [post 6, Forest Boyce, 122 pounds], who enters from a win in Laurel Park's Not For Love for trainer Ned Allard; graded stakes-placed Acoustic Ave [post 3, Jose Lezcano, 120 pounds], who is cross-entered in a Thursday optional-claiming event here for trainer Linda Rice; and multiple stakes-winner Point Dume [post 1, Angel Cruz, 122 pounds], who enters from a win in the Listed General George at Laurel Park for trainer Timothy Kreiser.

Carter Stakes History

The Carter Stakes has a storied history dating back to 1874 when it was run at Jerome Park. The race has been run at a number of different New York tracks including Belmont Park from 1984-1996 and three years in the 1950's. The Carter is currently held on Aqueduct's inner track in Queens, NY and it is a Grade III event for 3-year-olds with a purse of $250,000. The race is in early February and is a `Road to the Kentucky Derby' prep race with the top four finishers earning Derby qualifying points (10-4-2-1). The Carter also serves as a prep race for the Wood Memorial in April at Aqueduct.

At one time the Carter (G3) was a prestigious prize nearly on par with the Triple Crown races. It was not uncommon for Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners to use the one-mile race as a prep for the Preakness or Belmont Stakes; Sir Barton (1919), Omaha (1935), and Count Fleet (1943) managed to find time during their successful Triple Crown campaigns to compete in the Carter as well. By the 2000s the Carter had slipped sharply in prominence. Fewer high-class horses were competing in the Carter, which carried a purse of just $150,000, and it slipped from Grade 2 to Grade 3 status in 2000.

The Carter was historically run at a distance of 1 mile, and the race record was 1:32.40 by Williamstown (1993). The Carter distance was lengthened to 1 1/16 miles in 2012, and Far From Over (2015) holds that distance record in the Carter at 1:43.93.

Notable horses have won the Carter throughout history, including Triple Crown winners Sir Barton (1919) and Count Fleet (1943). Sir Barton became the first winner of what would be known as the American Triple Crown. Man O' War (1920) won 20-of-21 races including the Preakness and Belmont Stakes but skipped the Kentucky Derby. Native Dancer (1953) won 21-of-22 lifetime races with his lone loss in the Kentucky Derby. Additionally, 2006 winner Bernardini went on to win the Preakness Stakes that year.

The Carter was not run in 1911 or 1912 when the New York State legislated a ban on all forms of wagering on horses. Since Aqueduct's opening in the mid 1970's, the only horse hardy enough to race in the colder weather over the inner track and then go on to win the Kentucky Derby was 2004 Kentucky Derby winner Smarty Jones.

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