Evening Attire Stakes

The race is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York. It was called the Aqueduct Handicap, but beginning in 2009, the name was changed to the Evening Attire Stakes in honor of the great grey gelding Evening Attire. He raced until he was 10 years old, retiring in 2008. The race is an ungraded stakes event run on dirt at a distance of  1 ¹⁄₁₆ miles, it is open to horses three years old and up.

On November 28, 2007, this Grade III stakes race was downgraded to an ungraded stakes by the American Graded Stakes Committee.

Originally named for the racetrack where the inaugural race took place in 1902, until recently, it was mostly run on Labor Day but now is held in January. (It was run in late February in 2015.) The race did not take place from 1910 through 1916, 1924, 1956 through 1958, 1969 through 1972, 1974–1975, and in 1979. The 2010 edition marked its 91st running.

In 1961, the Aqueduct Handicap was run at Belmont Park.

The race was renamed the Aqueduct Stakes from 1962 to 1965 and in 1967 and 1968. In 1973 it was restricted to 2-year-old horses and was won by Cannonade who went on to win the 1974 Kentucky Derby.

On January 17, 2009 it was run as the Evening Attire Stakes.

The race's distance has been altered four times:

•  1 ⁵⁄₁₆ miles : 1920 through 1924
•  1 ¹⁄₈ miles : 1917 through 1919, 1926 through 1932, and from 1961 through 1973
• 1 mile : 1976
•  1 ¹⁄₁₆ miles : 1977 to present

Winners of the Evening Attire Stakes since 1959

Earlier winners

References

• Aqueduct's official website