Expert Pick of the Week: 2025 Artie Schiller Stakes

Oct 09, 2025 John Mucciolo/TwinSpires.com

Aqueduct (Photo by Coglianese Photography)

Six horses are entered for the grass in Saturday’s $150,000 Artie Schiller Stakes at Aqueduct. The one-mile turf race attracted some fast runners in what could be a fantastic feature in the Empire State.

Big Everest was a close second in the race in 2024, and I expect him to go one better in this year’s edition of the race. The seven-year-old has won 10 of his 24 starts leading up to this contest and loves Aqueduct, evidenced by his 9-5-1-2 mark on the track. The son of The Gurkha has a win from four appearances so far in 2025 while facing some nice horses, and the Miguel Clement trainee appears to be coming up to this race in good shape with a pair of useful morning workouts lately.

The bay gelding is the fastest horse in the field and will go right to the front from the early stages with Manuel Franco riding him for the second time. When the gates open, this duo will be running hard to secure a good position on top, and if he does his best work, then Big Everest will be there for the entire race.

There was just no catching #6 Big Everest in Race 3 at Belmont at the Big A as he wins as the 2/1 favorite!

Jockey: @JRosarioJockey
Trainer: @clementstable

🎥 #TwinSpiresReplay pic.twitter.com/fIinEO0vah

— TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) June 23, 2024

Trainer Todd Pletcher will saddle Major Dude, who has amassed more than $1.3 million in earnings in his career. The five-year-old son of Bolt d’Oro owns one win and one second-place run from two previous races at Aqueduct, and he has been running against some excellent horses for the duration of his career, with some solid results. Major Dude was last seen finishing a good fifth in the lucrative Mint Millions S. (G3) at Kentucky Downs last time, and he will be a major force if he shows improvement in this contest. John Velazquez has ridden this horse in two straight and will be the jockey once again on Saturday.

Horsepower has been first or second in 10 of his 15 lifetime races to date and was a sharp second at Woodbine in Canada in his latest endeavor. Trained by Joe Orseno, the four-year-old gray horse is pretty consistent, and this distance might be very good for him, too. Dylan Davis will be his rider.

Expert Pick

An exacta with #6 Big Everest on top of #2 Major Dude and #5 Horsepower in the 2025 Artie Schiller Stakes is the Best Bet of the Week.