Middleground
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Middleground
Middleground (April 22, 1947 – February 16, 1972) "Grave Matters Farm Index North America" (horse graves), Thoroughbred Heritage, 2005, webpage: was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1950 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and came second in the Preakness Stakes. He was named the 1950 American Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old Male. Racing career Middleground was ridden throughout his career by 16-year-old apprentice jockey Bill Boland, and he was trained by Max Hirsch, both future U.S. Hall of Fame inductees. As a two-year-old in 1949, Middleground won the Hopeful Stakes and came third in the Arlington Futurity. The following year, Middleground started the year with second-place finishes both the Withers Stakes and Wood Memorial. He then won the Kentucky Derby, only the second horse to win it with an apprentice jockey after his sire Bold Venture who won with jockey Ira Hanford. Five time Kentucky Derby winning jockey Eddie Arcar ...
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Hill Prince
Hill Prince (1947–1970) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. He was one of the leading American two-year-olds of 1949, alongside Oil Capitol and Middleground. In 1950, he ran fifteen times, winning races including the Preakness Stakes, Wood Memorial Stakes, Withers Stakes, American Derby, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Jerome Handicap and Sunset Handicap and being named American Horse of the Year. Hill Prince raced for two further seasons and had some success despite a number of injuries and training problems. He later became a moderately successful breeding stallion. Background Hill Prince was a bay horse sired by Princequillo, a leading racehorse who became a highly successful breeding stallion. Hill Prince was one of his first crop of foals. His dam Hildene went on to produce First Landing, the American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt of 1958. The colt was bred in at his owner Christopher Chenery's Meadow Farm stud near Doswell, Virginia. Hill Prince was trained for Chenery by J. ...
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Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry and fillies . It is dubbed "The Run for the Roses", stemming from the blanket of roses draped over the winner. It is also known in the United States as "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports" or "The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports" because of its approximate duration. It is the first leg of the American Triple Crown, followed by the Preakness Stakes, and then the Belmont Stakes. Of the three Triple Crown races, the Kentucky Derby has the distinction of having been run uninterrupted since its inaugural race in 1875. The race was rescheduled to September 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Preakness and Belmont Stakes races had taken hiatuses in 1891–18 ...
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William Boland
William Norris "Bill" Boland (born July 16, 1933 at Corpus Christi, Texas) is a retired American Hall of Fame jockey and trainer in Thoroughbred horse racing. Boland began his riding career in 1949 at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. While still a sixteen-year-old apprentice, riding Better Self for owner Robert J. Kleberg Jr.'s King Ranch and trainer Max Hirsch, Boland earned the first stakes race win of his career on April 29, 1950 in the Gallant Fox Handicap at Jamaica Race Course. He went on to the Kentucky Oaks aboard Ari's Mona then the following day rode Middleground to victory in the Kentucky Derby. Boland missed winning the U.S. Triple Crown series that year when he and Middleground finished second after a rough trip in the Preakness Stakes but then won the Belmont Stakes. In 1966 Boland won his second Belmont Stakes aboard Amberoid for trainer Lucien Laurin. Widely respected by his peers, in 1959 Bill Boland received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award The ...
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Max Hirsch
Maximilian Justice "Max" Hirsch (July 12, 1880 - April 3, 1969) was an American National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame Thoroughbred horse racing, racehorse horse trainer, trainer. Born in Fredericksburg, Texas, and raised Roman Catholic, Hirsch became one of the most successful trainers in Thoroughbred horse race, Thoroughbred horse racing history. He spent part of his formative years working as a groom and jockey at Morris Ranch, Texas, Morris Ranch in Gillespie County, Texas. Hirsch conditioned horses for various owners including George W. Loft, Arthur B. Hancock, the infamous Black Sox Scandal gambler Arnold Rothstein, Morton L. Schwartz, Jane Greer, and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt, but is best known for his work with the King Ranch, King Ranch Stable, which he joined in the 1930s and for whom he trained until his death in 1969. Sarazen was the first Champion Max Hirsch trained and said his win over the France, French Champion Epinard in the third race of the 19 ...
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Bold Venture (horse)
Bold Venture (March 4, 1933 – March 22, 1958), was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. Background Bold Venture was sired by St Germans, a multiple British stakes winner and second-place finisher in the 1924 English Derby. After his importation to stand at Greentree Stud in Lexington, Kentucky, St Germans became the leading sire of 1931, when his son Twenty Grand won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. St Germans' own sire, Swynford, also a stakes winner, was a top British stallion whose other sons included 1924 English Derby winner Sansovino (who thus defeated his half-brother St Germans), Challenger (also imported to the United States, where he sired American Horse of the Year Challedon), Lancegaye (imported to the U.S. and sire of Kentucky Derby winner Cavalcade, and Blandford, a leading sire in Europe and the sire of four English Derby winners. Bold Venture's dam, Possible, was by Ultimus, a son of Commando. R ...
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Hopeful Stakes
The Hopeful Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. Open to two-year-old horses, the Hopeful is the first Grade I stakes for two-year-olds each season and historically has been a showcase for some of the top East Coast horses at that age group. Raced on the dirt over a distance of seven furlongs, the Grade I event currently offers a purse of $350,000. Inaugurated in 1903, the first edition was won by Delhi who went on to win the 1904 Belmont Stakes. In 1904, the Hopeful Stakes was won by the filly Tanya. She would go on to win the 1905 Belmont Stakes. Initially raced at a distance of six furlongs, from 1925 through 1993 it was run at six and a half furlongs and since 1994 at seven furlongs. Currently, the Hopeful Stakes is the first influential prep race leading up to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and since 1925 has been a competition that marks the first time two-year-olds are tested at a distance beyond ...
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Belmont Stakes
The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over 1.5 miles (2,400 m). Colts and geldings carry a weight of ; fillies carry . The race, nicknamed The Test of the Champion, The Test of Champions and The Run for the Carnations, is the traditional third and final leg of the Triple Crown. It is usually held on the first or second Saturday in June, five weeks after the Kentucky Derby and three weeks after the Preakness Stakes. The 1973 Belmont Stakes and Triple Crown winner Secretariat holds the track record (which is also a world record on dirt) of 2:24. The race covers one full lap of Belmont Park, known as "The Championship Track" because nearly every major American champion in racing history has competed on the racetrack. Belmont Park, with its large, wide, sweeping turns and long homestretch, is considered one of the fairest racetracks in America. Despite the distance, the race tend ...
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National Museum Of Racing And Hall Of Fame
The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American Thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers. In 1955, the museum moved to its current location on Union Avenue near Saratoga Race Course, at which time inductions into the hall of fame began. Each spring, following the tabulation of the final votes, the announcement of new inductees is made, usually during Kentucky Derby Week in early May. The actual inductions are held in mid-August during the Saratoga race meeting. The Hall of Fame's nominating committee selects eight to ten candidates from among the four Contemporary categories (male horse, female horse, jockey and trainer) to be presented to the voters. Changes in voting procedures that commenced with the 2010 candidates allow the voters to choose multiple candidates from a single Contemporary category, instead of a single candidate from each of the four Contemporary categories. For examp ...
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Hopeful Stakes (United States)
The Hopeful Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. Open to two-year-old horses, the Hopeful is the first Grade I stakes for two-year-olds each season and historically has been a showcase for some of the top East Coast horses at that age group. Raced on the dirt over a distance of seven furlongs, the Grade I event currently offers a purse of $350,000. Inaugurated in 1903, the first edition was won by Delhi who went on to win the 1904 Belmont Stakes. In 1904, the Hopeful Stakes was won by the filly Tanya. She would go on to win the 1905 Belmont Stakes. Initially raced at a distance of six furlongs, from 1925 through 1993 it was run at six and a half furlongs and since 1994 at seven furlongs. Currently, the Hopeful Stakes is the first influential prep race leading up to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and since 1925 has been a competition that marks the first time two-year-olds are tested at a distance beyond six ...
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Swynford
Swynford (January 1907 – 18 May 1928) was a British Thoroughbred horse racing, racehorse. Bred at the Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, 16th Lord Derby's stud in Lincolnshire, England he was sired by John O'Gaunt (horse), John O'Gaunt, a son of Isinglass (horse), Isinglass, winner of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing#English Triple Crowns, British Triple Crown in 1893. His dam was Lord Derby's foundation mare and 1896 Epsom Oaks winner Canterbury Pilgrim who also produced Chaucer (horse), Chaucer, the 1927 and 1933 Leading broodmare sire in Great Britain & Ireland. Racing career Lord Derby died in June 1908 and his son Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby, Edward took over the family's racing and breeding operations. Trained by George Lambton at the Stanley House Stables in Newmarket, Suffolk, Swynford was a difficult horse to handle and in his only start at age two ran unplaced. An injury kept him off the track until 1910 when he made his three-year-old debut in Epsom D ...
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Jerome Handicap
The Jerome Stakes is a stakes race for thoroughbred horses run each January at Aqueduct Racetrack. Open to three year olds, the race is run at one mile and carries a purse of $150,000. It is a Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifying race, with the winner receiving 10 points towards qualification for the Kentucky Derby. The Jerome is the second oldest stakes race in the United States behind the Travers Stakes. It is named after Leonard W. Jerome, the grandfather of Winston Churchill and the founder of the old Jerome Park Racetrack in The Bronx. Notable horses that have won the Jerome include inaugural Kentucky Derby winner Aristides in 1875, Fitz Herbert in 1909, Bold Ruler in 1957, Kelso in 1960, Carry Back in 1961 and Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000. Up until 2009 the race was typically held in the fall at Belmont Park, after the major three-year-old classics. Following a hiatus in 2010, the Jerome was run for two years at the end of the Aqueduct Spring meet in April before moving to i ...
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Leonard Richards Stakes
The Barbaro Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race once run annually in mid July at Delaware Park Racetrack in Stanton, Delaware. It is now run in October. Previously known as the Leonard Richards Stakes, in 2007 it was renamed in honor of Barbaro, the horse who won the Kentucky Derby in 2006 but who eventually died after shattering his leg in that year's Preakness Stakes. A Grade III race through 2009 but now ungraded, it is open to three-year-old horses running one and one sixteenth mile on the dirt and offers a purse of $100,000. In 2011, the race was run at 1 mile and 70 yards. There was no race from 1983 through 1996. Records Speed record: (since 1997 at current distance of miles) * 1:42.41 - Burning Roma (2001) * Previously the race has been contested at miles. On June 18, 1960, Victoria Park won the race in a track record time of 1:47.40 for miles. As at 2020, that record remains intact. Winners since 1997 Earlier winners (partial list) *1948 - Page ...
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