Smiley Adams
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Smiley Adams
William Ernest "Smiley" Adams (October 4, 1935 – June 19, 2003) was an American trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses who trained Master Derby to win the 1975 Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series. In what was the 100th running of the Preakness, Darrel McHargue aboard Master Derby defeated Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure by a full-length. Always known as "Smiley", William Adams left school at age 14 to work as a stableboy at a racetrack. Three years later, the then 17-year-old lied about his age to join the United States Marine Corps and would serve overseas in the Korean War. After being discharged from the military, Adams returned to horse racing. In addition to his success with Master Derby, Adams also notably trained Run Dusty Run who finished second in the 1977 Kentucky Derby, third in the 1977 Preakness Stakes and second in the 1977 Belmont Stakes, all to Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew Seattle Slew (February 15, 1974 – May 7, 2 ...
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Versailles, Kentucky
Versailles () is a home rule-class city in Woodford County, Kentucky, United States. It lies by road west of Lexington and is part of the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. Versailles has a population of 9,316 according to 2017 census estimates. It is the county seat of Woodford County. The city's name is pronounced , an anglicization different from the French pronunciation of the royal city of the same name near Paris. History Versailles was founded on June 23, 1792, on of land owned by Hezekiah Briscoe, at the time only a child. His guardian, Marquis Calmes, named the town after Versailles, France, in honor of General Lafayette, a family friend and hero of the American Revolution. Located in what became known as the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky, where farmers also raised thoroughbred horses and other high-quality livestock, the city was officially incorporated on February 13, 1837. It was briefly occupied during the American Civil War by both Confederate and U ...
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Jeff Ruby Steaks
The Spiral Stakes (known as the Jeff Ruby Steaks, a homophone of the word Stakes, for commercial reasons) is a Grade III American thoroughbred horse race at a distance of a one and one-eighth miles on the synthetic track in late March at Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky. The event currently offers a purse of $600,000. History The event was inaugurated on 1 April 1972 as the Latonia Spiral Stakes over a distance of one mile, established by the General Manager of the Latonia race track John Battaglia for horses "spiraling up" to the Kentucky Derby. The race in its infancy attracted many entries and the administration of the track decided to run the event in two divisions in the following years: 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, and 1980. In 1982, bourbon whiskey maker Jim Beam acquired naming rights sponsorship and the race was renamed the Jim Beam Spiral Stakes. That year the distance of event was increased to miles. Two years later the event was named the Jim Beam Stakes. ...
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Master Derby
Master Derby (April 24, 1972 – January 22, 1999) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1975 Preakness Stakes. Background He was bred by Robert E. Lehmann at his Golden Chance Farm in Paris, Kentucky. Master Derby was out of the mare Madam Jerry, and sired by Lehmann's 1970 Kentucky Derby winner, Dust Commander. Racing career 1974: Two-year-old season Conditioned for racing by trainer Smiley Adams, at age two Master Derby made twelve starts, finishing either first or second in all of them. His best stakes race results were wins in the Grade 3 Kindergarten Stakes, a sprint race at Keystone Racetrack, and a division of the Grade 3 Dragoon Stakes at Liberty Bell Park Racetrack. He also earned a second-place finish in the important 1974 Breeders' Futurity Stakes and the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. 1975: Three-year-old season Racing as a three-year-old, Master Derby began his season with two straight losses in six-furlong sprints but then won the much ...
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Keeneland
Keeneland Association, Inc. is an equine business based in Lexington, Kentucky. It includes two distinct divisions: the Keeneland Race Course, a Thoroughbred racing facility, and Keeneland Sales, a horse auction complex. It is also known for its reference library. In 2009, the Horseplayers Association of North America introduced a rating system for 65 Thoroughbred racetracks in North America. Keeneland was ranked #1 of the top ten tracks. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. History Keeneland originated as a nonprofit racing–auction entity on of farmland west of Lexington, which had been owned by the son of James R. Keene, Jack Keene, a driving force behind the building of the facility. It has used proceeds from races and its auctions to further the thoroughbred industry as well as to contribute to the surrounding community. Keeneland Race Course has conducted live race meets in April and October si ...
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Preakness Stakes
The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs () on dirt. Colts and geldings carry ; fillies . It is the second jewel of the Triple Crown, held two weeks after the Kentucky Derby and three weeks before the Belmont Stakes. First run in 1873, the Preakness Stakes was named by a former Maryland governor after the colt who won the first Dinner Party Stakes at Pimlico. The race has been termed "The Run for the Black-Eyed Susans" because a blanket of Maryland's state flower is placed across the withers of the winning colt or filly. Attendance at the Preakness Stakes ranks second in North America among equestrian events, surpassed only by the Kentucky Derby. History Two years before the Kentucky Derby was run for the first time, Pimlico introduced its new stakes race for three-year-olds, the ...
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Triple Crown Of Thoroughbred Racing (United States)
In the United States, the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, commonly known as the Triple Crown, is a series of horse races for three-year-old Thoroughbreds, consisting of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. The three races were inaugurated in different years, the last being the Kentucky Derby in 1875. The Triple Crown Trophy, commissioned in 1950 but awarded to all previous winners as well as those after 1950, is awarded to a horse who wins all three races and is thereafter designated as a Triple Crown winner. The races are traditionally run in May and early June of each year, although global events have resulted in schedule adjustments, such as in 1945 and 2020. The first winner of all three Triple Crown races was Sir Barton in 1919. Some journalists began using the term ''Triple Crown'' to refer to the three races as early as 1923, but it was not until Gallant Fox won the three events in 1930 that Charles Hatton of the ''Daily Racing Form'' put the t ...
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Phoenix Stakes (United States)
The Phoenix Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky. Open to horses age three and older, it is contested on dirt over a distance of six furlongs and currently offers a purse of $350,000. Raced in early October, prior to 1989 it was run during the track's spring meeting. It became a Grade III event in 2000, then was upgraded to Grade II status in 2016. Part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge series, the winner of the Phoenix Stakes automatically qualifies for the Breeders' Cup Sprint. History Founded in 1831 with the name from the local Phoenix Hotel, it is the oldest thoroughbred horse race in North America though it has not been run continuously. Hosted by the Kentucky Association racetrack in Lexington until 1930, the event was restarted at Keeneland Race Course in 1937. From 1943 to 1945, the race was renewed as part of the Keeneland-at-Churchill Downs meetings. Over the years it has been called the Brennan, Chile ...
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Dixie Stakes
The Dinner Party Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually in mid-May at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the eighth-oldest graded stakes race in the United States and the oldest stakes race in Maryland and all of the Mid-Atlantic states. The race is open to horses age three and up and is run one and one-eighth miles on the turf. Currently a Grade II stakes race with a purse of $250,000, at one time the Dixie was a very important race that drew the top horses from across North America. History First run as the "Dinner Party Stakes" when Pimlico Race Course opened in 1870, it was named for the 1868 dinner party in Saratoga Springs, New York where Maryland Governor Oden Bowie and others met and wagered, resulting in the building of the Pimlico race course for thoroughbred race horses. The inaugural event was won by Preakness, for whom the Preakness Stakes was named. In 1871, it was called the Reunion Stakes and was won in a walkover by Harry Basse ...
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Arlington Handicap
The Arlington Stakes is a Grade III American Thoroughbred horse race for horses aged four years old over a distance of one and one-sixteenth miles on the turf held annually in late May or early June at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The event currently carries a purse of $200,000. It currently offers a purse of $200,000 and served as a final local prep race for the Arlington Million. The race was hosted by the now defunct Washington Park Race Track in 1943, 1944 and 1945, and by the Hawthorne Race Course in 1985. The Arlington Handicap was run on dirt in 1929–1940, 1942–1953, 1963, 1965–1972, and in 1975. There was no race held in 1940, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1988, 1998, or 1999. In 2022, the event was moved to Churchill Downs after the closure of Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Illinois and run over the shorter distance of miles.https://www.churchilldowns.com/uploads/horsemen-files/stakes-schedules/Spring%20Stakes%20Schedule.pdf Distances: * mile – 1968 ...
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Tremont Stakes
The Tremont Stakes is a Listed American Thoroughbred horse race run annually for two-year-olds over the distance of 5½ furlongs on the dirt in early June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. The event carries a purse of US$150,000. History First held in 1887, it is named for the horse Tremont, who, according to the New York Racing Association, was acclaimed by 19th Century horse racing historians as the best two-year-old ever bred in the United States. It was first run at the Gravesend Race Track at Coney Island in Brooklyn until 1910 when racing was no longer viable after the New York State Legislature passed the Hart–Agnew Law which outlawed all racetrack betting. Although the law was repealed in time to resume racing in 1913, the Gravesend Racetrack never reopened. The Tremont Stakes was restarted in 1914. The race was not run in 1911–1913, 1933–1935 and 2009–2013. It is the first stakes race on the Belmont Park stakes schedule for two-year-old colts. In 1975, E. Ro ...
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Secretariat Stakes
The Secretariat Stakes is a Graded stakes race, Grade I American Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds over a distance of one mile on the Grass, turf. The event was originally raced at the now-closed Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Illinois, Arlington Heights, Illinois as a supporting stakes race on the Arlington Million racing program. Churchill Downs, whose Churchill Downs Incorporated, parent company owns the land of the defunct Arlington Park racetrack, originally planned to run the Secretariat Stakes in 2022, but the race was not run due to issues with the Churchill Downs turf course. The 2023 race will be run at Churchill-owned Colonial Downs in Virginia. History Precursor — Arlington Invitational In 1973, after Secretariat (horse), Secretariat became the first Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing#United States Triple Crowns, U.S. Triple Crown winner in twenty five years, many race tracks wanted to have him race at their tracks. Arlington racetrack management ...
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Illinois Derby
The Illinois Derby is a race for Thoroughbred horses for three year olds run over a distance of one and one-eighth miles (9 furlongs) on the dirt at Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney/Cicero, Illinois, just west of Chicago in early April each year. The event was first run in 1923 at the Hawthorne Race Course. The purse is $250,000. History The race was named in honor of the home state in which it was run, the state of Illinois. The inaugural running of the race took place at Hawthorne in 1923 and was won by In Memoriam, the 3 year-old champion with Zev that year. The race was then run at Sportsman's Park from 1924 through 1931. It moved to Aurora Downs racetrack in 1932 and was run there until 1938. In 1939 the race went on hiatus until through 1962. Then the race was revived at Sportsman's Park Racetrack again in 1963 where it remained through its 2002 running. The race was not run 1939-1962 and 1970-1971. The race was first graded in 1973 when the grading system started as a ...
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