Stakes races such as the Belmont or the Woodward are a tribute to those who make important contributions to horse races, reflect their names what those pillars of the turf have given the sport.
Ren every year on Saratoga Race Course, the Whitney Stakes and the Roster of winners, including a Triple Crown winner and a whole series of Hall of Famers, recognize what the multiple generations of the family of owners and breeders have given the sport in the years since William Collins Whitney have been his first.
The Whitney Stakes was inaugurated in 1928 and has become an annual memory of what the name Whitney represents in the history of American Racing, a tradition of excellence reflected in the champions that have taken this rich function.
A family of import
Now a “win and you’re in” Challenge Series qualifying race for the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic, the degree 1 Whitney has been added to Saratoga’s deployment schedule from 1928 as a tribute to the late William Payne Whitney, younger son of Whitney and owner of Greentney.
The younger Whitney had suddenly died last summer, his death mourned by the New York Racing Society who lowered the flag in Belmont Park in half of half in honor of him. Naming the 1 ¼-mile deployment for the deceased owner also recognized the role that the family played in the sport in the first half of the 20one century, starting with Patriarch William Collins Whitney.
The older Whitney had a successful career as a businessman and politician, where he served as secretary of the Navy under President Grover Cleveland, before investing in racing and breeding thanks to friends John E. Madden and August Belmont II. He bred 26 champions, including the Hall of Fame Filly Artful, and won the 1901 Epsom Derby with Volodyovsky. The Patriarch also helped with the revival of Saratoga Race Course as part of the Saratoga Association for the Improvement of the Breed of Horses, a syndicate that also included Richard T. Wilson and Thomas Hitchcock.
His both sons, Harry Payne and William Payne, followed their father to the sport, the last one with his wife, Helen Hay Whitney, daughter of John Hay, former politician and ambassador in the United Kingdom. Although he was racing for the death of his father of his father from 1904, Harry Payne put his investment in sport with his purchase of 16 mares and two stallions from his father’s blood. He then turned to racing and breeding, his Eton Blue and Brown colors became an ordinary face on the racing tracks of the country, including in the Circle of Kentucky Derby winner of 1915 when regret the first anti -tribe was that the big race won. The involvement of William Payne at the Jockey Club was initially more of a social and business obligation, but thanks to the influence of Helen, the couple started racing as GreenTree Stable in the 1910s and won the Kentucky Oaks in 1923.
By the time William Payne Whitney died in May 1927, more than two decades after his father, the Whitneys had become part of the elite of the sport. By donating the name of the family on a race in Stakes in Saratoga, a racing track was saved by William Collins Whitney and visited by the different stables of the family, more than a memorial for one man. This annual prize honors the role of the Whitney family in sport and serves as an opportunity for the best that the sport has to offer to show their talent in the brightest spotlights.
An important test
The first Whitney Stakes contain a short field of four, including 1927 Kentucky Derby winner Whisantery; Chance Shot, the Belmont deployment of last year Victor; An outsider named Friar’s Hope; and the William R. Coe Mare Black Maria. Whisantery led for a large part of the ten Furlongs, but made way in the last eighth when Black Maria led her to the lead. She held Chance Shot to win with half a length, the first of six mares who won the Whitney, followed by Bateau (1929), Esposa (1937), Gallorette (1948), Lady’s Secret (1986) and Personal Ensign (1988).
Initially opened for 3-year-olds and older, the race was shortened from 1 ¼ miles to 1 1/8 miles in 1955 and then limited to 4-year-olds and older from 1957 to 1969 and then starting again in 2020. The grade 1 race became part of the “Win and you you you’re in” Path to the Breeders “Cup Classic, including the Several. (2017) and both, both the classic (2017) and both, both the classic (2017) and both. Of whom were later named Horse of the Year.
Since its foundation almost a century ago, the Whitney host played for a good number of the greats of the sport. In The Race’s First Decade, Alfred G. Vanderbilt II’s Discovery Won Three Consecutive Editions, 1934-1936, and then Kelso Equaled That Mark With His Wins in 1961, 1963, and 1965. War Admiral Triple CROWNTE HISRNY THE YEARN HISNNY THE YEAR NACE HISNNY 1937 Defeat in the 1973 Edition, when the Allen Jerkens-trained onion surprised Everyone by Taking the Lead from the break and then going on the Poort to beat the sick winner of Triple Crown with a length.
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