RACING TO HISTORY
May 25, 1991: Jockey Steve Cauthen won his fourth European derby, the Derby
Italiano, with Hailsham, trained by Clive Brittain. Cauthen has also won the
Epsom Derby twice, the Irish Derby and the French Derby, in addition to his
Kentucky Derby win with Affirmed.
May 25, 1998: Jockey Eddie Maple announced his retirement at Belmont Park
while accepting the 1998 Mike Venezia Award. Maple ended his career with
4,398 career victories and earnings of $105,318,593.
May 27, 1823: A $20,000 match race between American Eclipse (representing
The North) and Henry (representing The South) was held at Union Course, Long
Island. Eclipse won in two-of-three heats, after his original jockey,
William Crafts, was replaced by Samuel Purdy before the second heat. The
race, witnessed by 60,000 spectators, was the first to have been timed by
split-second chronometers, which were imported for the event.
May 27, 1873: A bay colt, Survivor, won the first Preakness Stakes by 10
lengths, the largest margin in the race's history.
May 27, 1878: The entire field of Preakness Stakes horses-three-was owned by
a single family, the brothers George and Pierre Lorillard. George's horses
finished first and third.
May 27, 1882: Trainer Robert Walden won his fifth consecutive Preakness
Stakes, with Vanguard. Walden won a total of seven Preaknesses, a record for
a trainer.
May 27, 1979: Jockey Chris McCarron, 24, won his 2,000th career race, aboard
Stembok, in the second race at Hollywood Park.
May 27, 1981: Bill Shoemaker became the first jockey in racing history to
win 8,000 races when he rode War Allied to victory in the first race at
Hollywood Park.
May 27, 1985: Under jockey Laffit Pincay Jr., odds-on favorite Spend a Buck
defeated Creme Fraiche by a neck to win the Jersey Derby and earn $2.6
million, the largest single purse in American racing history. Two million
dollars of the purse came from a bonus to Spend a Buck for winning the
Cherry Hill Mile, the Garden State Stakes, the Kentucky Derby and the Jersey
Derby. Angel Cordero Jr., the regular rider of Spend a Buck, was committed
to ride Track Barron in the Metropolitan Handicap in New York on the same
day and was persuaded to give up his mount in the Jersey Derby. Track Barron
finished third in the Metropolitan, earning $40,620.
May 28, 1997: Visa USA and Triple Crown Productions announced that they had
increased the bonus for winning the Triple Crown to a total of $5 million.
May 28, 2000: Jockey Edgar Prado registered his 4,000th career victory
aboard Thunder Breeze in the second race at Belmont Park.
May 29, 1897: Scottish Chieftain, owned by Marcus Daly, became the only
Montana bred to win the Belmont Stakes.
May 29, 1907: Colin began his undefeated career, breaking his maiden by two
lengths at Belmont Park.
May 29, 1946: Two-year-old fillies Chakoora and Uleta became the first
Thoroughbreds to complete a transcontinental flight. They were flown from
New York to Inglewood, Calif., by the American Air Express Corporation, for
a 2,446-mile trip that lasted 20 hours due to adverse weather conditions.
May 30, 1903: Flocarline became the first filly to win the Preakness Stakes.
May 30, 1908: Jockey Joe Notter misjudged the finish of the Belmont Stakes
and eased up on his mount, Colin, whose career record to that point was
13-for-13. Notter barely recovered from his mistake to hold off the drive of
Fair Play, who came within a head of defeating Colin. When he retired,
Colin's record stood at 15 wins in as many starts.
May 30, 1936: Omaha, the Triple Crown winner of 1935, won the Queens Plate
at Kempton Park, England, for owner William Woodward.
May 30, 1941: Hollywood Park introduced the "vibrationless camera,"
developed by Hollywood cameraman Lorenzo del Ricio. Eight patrol judges with
the cameras, which were attached to their binoculars, were stationed at
intervals around the track. Jockey Nunzio Pariso was the camera's first
victim-he was shown on film crowding a rival on the far turn.
May 30, 1969: Jockey Patty Barton won her first career race, at Pikes Peak.
May 31, 1969: Racing returned to Pennsylvania when Liberty Bell racetrack
opened, near Philadelphia. The state had not had legal racing since 1802 and
became the 30th state to adopt parimutuel wagering.
June 1, 1881: Pierre Lorillard's Iroquois became the first American-owned
and -bred horse to win a European classic race when he won the Epsom Derby
under one of England's greatest riders, Fred Archer. Iroquois won seven of
nine starts as a three-year-old, including England's St. Leger Stakes.
June 1, 1946: Assault became the seventh horse to win the Triple Crown, with
a victory in the Belmont Stakes.
June 1, 1973: In his final tuneup for the Belmont Stakes and the Triple
Crown, Secretariat went six furlongs in 1:11 3/5, doing the first three
furlongs in :35 2/5 and five furlongs in :59.
June 1, 1978: In his first start ever on the turf, eventual four-time
champion grass horse John Henry won a $35,000, 1 1/16-mile claiming race by
14 lengths at Belmont Park. John Henry was voted champion turf horse for the
years 1980-81 and 1983-84.
June 1, 1999: Mr. Prospector, the most influential sire of his generation,
died in his stall at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky. He was 29.
June 2, 1943: Trainer Hirsch Jacobs claimed two-year-old Stymie for $1,500.
By the end of 1947, Stymie had become the world's leading money-winning
Thoroughbred, with earnings of $816,060 and 22 stakes victories.
June 2, 1947: After a six-year layoff, 13-year-old Honey Cloud won the
second race at Aqueduct. His jockey, Clarence Minner, had not ridden in 10
years.
June 3, 1943: To further the war effort, the Navy took over Tanforan
racetrack and used it as a training base.
June 4, 1870: Ed Brown became the first African-American jockey to win the
Belmont Stakes, with Kingfisher.
June 4, 1913: At odds of 100-1, Aboyeur became the first horse to win the
Epsom Derby by an on-course disqualification after Craganour, who won by a
head, was disqualified for bumping. During the race, a suffragette had
rushed onto the track and pulled down the King's horse, Anmer. The
suffragette, Emily Davison, died of a fractured skull.
June 4, 1941: Three days before his race in the Belmont Stakes, which would
complete his Triple Crown, Whirlaway worked 1 1/4 miles in 2:02 2/5.
June 5, 1884: James McLaughlin became the first jockey to ride three
consecutive Belmont Stakes winners, when he rode Panique to victory. He
previously won with George Kinney (1883) and Forester (1882). McLaughlin
repeated his feat in 1886-88, with each of his wins aboard horses owned by
the Dwyer brothers. McLaughlin's triple was matched by jockey Laffit Pincay
Jr. in 1984.
June 5, 1901: William C. Whitney's Volodyovski won the Epsom Derby, making
him the second American owner (after Pierre Lorillard in 1881) to have won
the race. Whitney leased the English-bred horse for the express purpose of
winning at Epsom. Whitney's trainer, John Huggins, was the first American to
train an Epsom Derby winner.
June 5, 1937: War Admiral became the fourth winner of the Triple Crown, with
a win in the Belmont Stakes.
June 5, 1943: Count Fleet ended his racing career by winning the Belmont
Stakes by 25 lengths. He was the sixth American Triple Crown winner. Count
Fleet was such a heavy favorite for the race, going off at odds of 1-20,
that no place or show wagering was allowed.
June 5, 1969: Jockey Mary Bacon won her first race, at Finger Lakes. Among
apprentices, she finished 23rd in the races-won category that year, with 55
victories in 396 starts and purses of $91,642. Bacon was the first female
to join the list of leading apprentices.
June 5, 1985: Steve Cauthen won the Epsom Derby aboard Slip Anchor and
became the only American jockey to win both the English and Kentucky
Derbies. Cauthen had previously ridden Affirmed to victory in the 1978
Kentucky Derby.
June 5, 1993: Julie Krone became the first female rider to win a Triple
Crown race when she won the Belmont Stakes with Colonial Affair.
June 5, 1999: Charismatic lost his bid to become the 12th Triple Crown
winner when he fractured his left front cannon bone and sesamoid while
finishing third to Lemon Drop Kid in the Belmont Stakes.
June 6, 1919: Man o' War won his first race ever, a five-furlong contest
over a straightaway at Belmont Park. He won by six lengths, running the
distance in 59 seconds, and went off at odds of 3-5. In each of his 20
subsequent races, Man o' War was the odds-on favorite.
June 6, 1972: In preparation for his colt's July 4 racing debut, trainer
Lucien Laurin put blinkers on two-year-old Secretariat for the first time.
Secretariat responded by working a half-mile at Belmont Park in :47 3/5, the
fastest time he had ever worked up to that date.
June 6, 1987: Bet Twice became the first horse to receive a Triple Crown
bonus after winning the Belmont Stakes over rival Alysheba. He earned $1
million in addition to the first-place money.
June 6, 1992: Jockey Carl Gambardella won his 6,000th career victory, aboard
Nip of Gin, at Rockingham Park.
June 6, 1998: Real Quiet was denied the Triple Crown when Victory Gallop
edged him at the wire in the Belmont Stakes before an audience of 80,162.
The crowd was the second-largest in the track's history and just shy of the
mark set in 1971 when Canonero II failed in his Triple Crown bid before
82,694 spectators. Total handle on the Belmont Day card was a record of
$55,613,482.
WEEKEND STAKES RACES (unrestricted stakes worth $75,000 and up)
SATURDAY, MAY 26
Gamely Breeders' Cup Handicap, 3&up (f&m), $250,000, Grade I, 1 1/8 M (T),
Hollywood Park
Peter Pan Stakes, 3yo, $200,000, Grade II, 1 1/8 M, Belmont Park
Connaught Cup Stakes, 4&up, $150,000, Grade III, 1 1/16 M (T), Woodbine
Calder Breeders' Cup Handicap, 3&up (f&m), $150,000, 1 1/16 M (T), Calder
Dogwood Stakes, 3yo fillies, $100,000, Grade III, 1 1/16 M, Churchill Downs
Willard L. Proctor Memorial Stakes, 2yo, $75,000, 5F, Hollywood Park
Precisionist Handicap, 3&up, $75,000, 1 1/16 M, Prairie Meadows
Brandywine Stakes, 3&up, $75,000, 1M, Delaware Park
SUNDAY, MAY 27
Jaipur Handicap, 3&up, $100,000, Grade III, 7F (T), Belmont Park
Los Angeles Handicap, 3&up, $100,000, Grade III, 6f, Hollywood Park
Jersey Derby, 3yo, $100,000, Grade III, 1 1/16 M (T), Monmouth Park
MONDAY, MAY 28
Metropolitan Handicap, 3&up, $750,000, Grade I, 1M, Belmont Park
Shoemaker Breeders' Cup Mile Stakes, 3&up, $350,000, Grade I, 1M (T),
Hollywood Park
Lone Star Park Handicap, 3&up, $300,000, Grade III, 1 1/16 M, Lone Star Park
at Grand Prairie
USA Stakes, 3yo, $200,000, 1 1/16 M (T), Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie
WinStar Distaff, 3&up (f&m), $200,000, 1M (T), Lone Star Park at Grand
Prairie
All-American Handicap, 3&up, $150,000, Grade III, 1 1/16 M, Bay Meadows
Red Bank Handicap, 3&up, $150,000, Grade III, 1M (T), Monmouth Park
Kentucky Breeders' Cup Stakes, 2yo, $150,000, Grade III, 5½ F, Churchill
Downs
Flawlessly Stakes, 3yo fillies, $150,000, 1 1/8 M (T), Hollywood Park
Lazaro S. Barrera Memorial Stakes, 3yo, $100,000, Grade III, 7F, Hollywood
Park
Lone Star Park Turf Sprint, 3&up, $100,000, 5F (T), Lone Star Park at Grand
Prairie
Honor Guard Stakes, 3yo, $75,000, 1 1/8 M (T), Pimlico
Memorial Day Handicap, 3&up, $75,000, 1 1/16 M, Calder
Denise Rhudy Memorial Stakes, 3yo fillies, $75,000, 1 1/16 M (T), Delaware
Park
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