Famous Horse Races - Preakness Stakes
Stakes:
Grade I For 3-year-old thoroughbreds and fillies;
1 and 3/16 mile
Race type: Thoroughbred
Purse: $1,000,000 US
Location: Pimlico Race Course
- Baltimore, Maryland USA
Inaugurated: 1873
Track: Dirt, Left-handed
Weight: Colt/Gelding:
126 lbs (57.2 kg) Filly:
121 lbs. (54.9 kg)
Race Nickname: "The Run
for the Black-Eyed Susans"
Website: Preakness
Stakes
 The
Preakness Stakes is an American Grade I stakes
race 1-3/16 mile (1.91 km) thoroughbred horse
race for three-year-old horses, held on the third
Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course
in Baltimore, Maryland. Colts and geldings carry
126 pounds (57 kg); fillies 121 lb (55 kg). The
Preakness Stakes has been termed "The Run
for the Black-Eyed Susans" because a horseshoe
of black-eyed susans (Rudbeckia hirta), the state
flower of Maryland, is traditionally placed around
the winner's neck.
The Preakness is the second and shortest leg in
American thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown and
almost always attracts the Kentucky Derby winner.
It is followed by the third leg, the Belmont Stakes.
Preakeness Stakes
In the spring of 1873,
two years before the inaugural Kentucky Derby,
the folks at Pimlico were busy working on a new
three-year old stakes race of their own. Pimlico,
which since its opening in 1870 had conducted
all of its racing in the fall, ran its first Spring
Meet in the year of 1873, with the initial running
of the Preakness held on May 23. The Preakness
was founded by then-Maryland governor Oden Bowie.
Governor Bowie's term had actually ended in 1872,
yet that did not prevent him from naming the then-
mile and a half race in honor of the colt who
won the Dinner Party Stakes in 1870 on the occasion
of Pimlico's opening. At an 1868 Saratoga party
hosted by a Milton Sanford, Bowie guaranteed that
Maryland would have a track available for a race
that was later dubbed the Dinner Party Stakes
and had been instantly promoted by Bowie at the
party when he offered $15,000 as a purse--no small
sum at the time.
The Maryland Jockey Club negotiated for the land
that became known as Pimlico later that year;
the new course opened as promised on October 25,
1870. Sanford, who had gained his wealth by selling
blankets during the Civil war, went after the
$15,000 with a colt of his own named Preakness,
who won over all the horses of the race, including
one owned by the governor which came in last.
Nevertheless, it was Bowie who named the eventual
second jewel of the Triple Crown. (The Dinner
Party Stakes, later changed to the Early Times
Dixie, is now the eighth oldest stakes race in
America and still run annually at Pimlico.)
On May 23, 1873 the first edition of the Preakness
took place. Interestingly, the setting was familiar
to that of the inaugural Derby. The crowds made
it to the grounds by buggy carriage and omnibus,
although a projected horsecar line from Baltimore
and Pikesville was unfortunately terminated two
miles south of the track. Still, some fans did
arrive via the Northern Central Railroad which
brought spectators closer to the track--a walk
of only one uphill mile. The race itself claimed
seven contestants, with Survivor galloping to
an easy ten length victory, a margin of victory
that still stands as the largest in Preakness
history.
After flourishing for
almost two decades, the Maryland Jockey Club ran
into tough financial times after the 1889 running.
In 1890 the Preakness was run at Morris Park in
New York, and in 1891, 1892, and 1893 it wasn't
run at all. From 1894 to 1908 the Preakness was
held at the Gravesend track in Brooklyn, New York.
Although the Maryland Jockey Club held some steeplechase
and trotting races at Pimlico, the Preakness did
not return to its Baltimore home until 1909. It
wasn't until 1948 that these fifteen "lost
races" were incorporated into the official
race history, with the 1890 running not added
until the 1960s. Nevertheless, ever since the
May 12, 1909 Preakness, won by Effendi, the Preakness
has been held at Pimlico every year. It didn't
take long for the Preakness to grow into a force
in horse racing: in 1918 26 horses were entered,
forcing the race to be run in two divisions.
The next year, a colt named Sir Barton became
the first Triple Crown winner. Man O'War, who
skipped his one chance at the Derby, helped establish
the Preakness into a "true American classic"
when he romped in the 1920 edition. The place
of the Preakness Stakes in the Triple Crown and
American sport is firm, with the race garnering
nearly a half million people in attendance over
the last five years.
The Weather Vane
The Kentucky Derby has "My Old Kentucky Home;"
the Preakness Stakes has "Maryland, My Maryland."
The Kentucky Derby has the blanket of roses; the
Preakness Stakes has the blanket of black-eyed susans.
But one thing the Preakness Stakes has that the
Derby does not is the famed and historic weather
vane, a Preakness tradition since 1909. Here, in
the words of the official Preakness site, is a description
of this tradition: "As soon as the Preakness
winner has been declared official, a painter climbs
a ladder to the top of a replica of the Old Clubhouse
cupola. He applies the colors of the victorious
owner's silks on the jockey and horse which are
part of the weather vane atop the infield structure."
Back in 1909 a horse and rider weather vane sat
at the top of the old Members' Clubhouse, which
was constructed at the opening of Pimlico in 1870.
That building was destroyed by fire in June 1966,
and a replica of the old building's cupola (a small
structure on top of a roof or building) was built
to stand in the Preakness winner's circle in the
infield.
Originally the building had an arrow-shaped weather
vane, but that one was destroyed by lightning in
1909. To replace it, the Maryland Jockey Club "commissioned
an ornamental iron worker to forge a vane in the
form of a horse and a rider. It was christened that
spring by coating it with the colors of the silks
borne by Effendi, winner of the 1909 Preakness."
When the old Members' Clubhouse burned down the
only thing saved was the iron weather vane, which
was then put away for safekeeping at Pimlico as
a memento. Since 1988 Lawrence Jones, who lives
in the Pimlico neighborhood, has had the job of
keeping the weather vane up-to-date. Past weather
vane painter Michael Willinger had this to say about
the famous contract work: "It is just the thrill
of being able to participate in a big local and
national event like this. Let's face it: it's the
only televised sign painting job in the country."
How true. How The Preakness Stakes Was Named.
Like a lot of names throughout America, the name
Preakness is derived from Native American culture.
A northern New Jersey band of Indians called the
Minisi labeled their area Pra-qua-les, meaning "quail
woods." After some inventive respellings, the
name evolved into Preakness. One variation of the
name was Preckiness, used by General George Washington
to describe where his troops were stationed during
the 1776-77 winter. Milton Sanford, who we saw earlier
in connection with the Dinner Party Stakes, called
his farms (he had one in New Jersey and one in Kentucky)
Preakness. Oddly enough, his New Jersey farm was
located in the Indians' "quail woods,"
and there remains today a Preakness, New Jersey.
Sanford, without much regard, purchased a yearling
that was bred in Kentucky's Woodburn Farm, the eighth
foal of a horse named Bay Leaf, for $2,000. He named
it Preakness. Needless to say, it was this horse
that as a three-year old went on to win the Dinner
Party Stakes at Pimlico's inaugural in 1870. That
was the horses only race of 1870, although he did
continue to race through his eight-year old season,
even winning races at that age. In 1873, the Maryland
Jockey Club honored him by calling its newest stakes
race "Preakness," while the Dinner Party
Stakes evolved into the present-day Dixie Handicap.
After his eighth year of racing Sanford sent Preakness
to England, where he was eventually purchased by
the Duke of Hamilton. Yet like most of us, Preakness
developed a temper in old age and became tough to
handle. But unlike most of us, Preakness was shot
and killed by his owner the Duke of Hamilton, who
apparently had also grown a tad irritable. So, the
legacy of Preakness is twofold: one, he supplied
the name for the second jewel of the Triple Crown,
and two, he touched off a reform in English law
which governed the handling of animals. What a champion. |
