The Excelsior Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually during the first week of April at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, Queens, New York. A Grade III event for three-year-olds and up, it is contested over a distance of one-and-one-eighth miles 9 furlong. "Excelsior" is Latin for "Upward, ever upward", and is the motto of the state of New York. In 1928, when Hall of Famer Grey Lag was ten years old, he came in third. He'd won this race as a five-year-old in 1923.