EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – After taking a major step in his brief training career this summer at Monmouth Park, Panagiotis “Peter” Synnefias is hoping to take another one this winter when he sends a string to Aqueduct.

That’s where the 27-year-old will head when the Monmouth Park backstretch closes on Oct. 31 with a division of “15 to 20 horses.”

For now, he will finish out the year in New Jersey, with one horse entered during Friday night’s Monmouth-at-Meadowlands meet (Wild Jaime in the third race). The boutique all-turf meet has three live racing days left, with six-race cards on Friday and Saturday this weekend before the final day of racing on Friday, Oct. 17.

“I didn’t start a lot last winter but this year we’re going to try New York,” he said. “Right now we’re active claiming horses at Keeneland and in New York to build up the stable a little. Nothing serious, but we’re looking to add a few horses and have 15 to 20 at Aqueduct.

“Last year I didn’t do much in the winter. I basically took the winter off. But we will be busy this winter.”

When Synnefias does head to New York he will do so with plenty of momentum after winning the first two graded stakes of his career over the summer at Monmouth Park while finishing tied for fourth in the trainer standings.

Surface To Air provided both of those Grade 3 wins, capturing the Philip H. Iselin on Aug. 16 and the Monmouth Cup on July 10.

“It’s been a great year so far,” said Synnefias. “We have more wins than we did last year (a career-best 28 so far) and our earnings are almost double what they were /last year. I couldn’t be happier with the way things have gone.”

Surface To Air will not be one of the horses headed to the Big A, however, with the 5-year-old – idle since the Iselin win – getting the rest of the year off.

“We did this with him last year,” said Synnefias. “We’ll give him the winter off and then bring him back next year.”

The Boston-born Synnefias, the son of Greek immigrants, both of whom are trainers, is the grandson of Peter Bazeos, a long-time trainer on the old New England circuit.

He recently graduated from Penn National to Monmouth Park and now will look to do the same with the move to New York this winter. It has been a dizzying journey since he went out on his own full time in 2022.

“People have obviously noticed the success I’ve had, but as far as clientele-wise I’m pretty content, so I haven’t had many new owners yet,” he said. “Maybe I have a new client or two but I don’t think that was necessarily because of the success I had. I think that will come with time.”

Synnefias said he went into the Monmouth Park meet “thinking we could compete for the title.”

“But I knew it would be tough to do since we had only 25 horses to stat,” he added.

He finished with 15 wins from 93 starts at Monmouth, which left him six winners shy of leading trainer Jorge Delgado.

“Sometimes things happen that are out of your control,” said Synnefias, who has one winner from four starters during the Monmouth-at-Meadowlands meet. “I took four horses to Penn National in September because races didn’t go at Monmouth and I won with three of them. If I could have gotten them in at Monmouth, I would have been even closer to being leading trainer. I had six winners in September that I could not get to go at Monmouth Park. Put those six winners at Monmouth Park and I’m right there as the leading trainer, tied with Jorge Delgado.

“But I have no complaints. It’s been a great year to this point and we aren’t finished yet.”