Samuel Clay Hildreth (May 16, 1866 – September 24, 1929) was an American
Thoroughbred horse racing
Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing in t ...
Hall of Fame
A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
trainer and owner.
Samuel C. Hildreth at the United States' National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
Retrieved July 22, 2017
Biography
Born in Independence, Missouri
Independence is the fifth-largest city in Missouri and the county seat of Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson County. Independence is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metro ...
, Sam Hildreth began his training career in 1887, competing at racetracks in the Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
with such horses as the good racemare Hurley Burley, the dam of Burgomaster
Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, literally "master of the town, master of the borough, master of the fortress, master of the citizens") is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief m ...
. In 1898 he moved to New York City where thoroughbred racing was a leading sport offering the largest purses. He was first hired to train horses owned by wealthy businessman William Collins Whitney
William Collins Whitney (July 5, 1841February 2, 1904) was an American political leader and financier and a prominent descendant of the John Whitney family. He served as Secretary of the Navy in the first administration of President Grover Clev ...
, but soon set out on his own, buying horses for himself and training for others. He won his first of seven 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 Th ...
in 1899 with the horse Jean Bereaud
Jean Bereaud (1896 – November 15, 1908) was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse best known for winning an 1899 American Classic Race, the Belmont Stakes.
Background
He was bred by the partnership of David Gideon and John Daly a ...
for owner Sydney Paget.
By the turn of the 20th century, Samuel Hildreth had expanded his New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
operations and owned the largest racing stables at the Fair Grounds Race Course
Fair Grounds Race Course, often known as New Orleans Fair Grounds, is a thoroughbred racetrack and racino in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is operated by Churchill Downs Louisiana Horseracing Company, LLC.
As early as 1838 Bernard de Marigny, Ju ...
in . That year, he appointed former outlaw
An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...
Frank James
Alexander Franklin James (January 10, 1843 – February 18, 1915) was a Confederate soldier and guerrilla; in the post-Civil War period, he was an outlaw. The older brother of outlaw Jesse James, Frank was also part of the James–Younger ...
as his betting commissioner at the track. Among the horses Hildreth owned was Fitz Herbert (b. 1906) who won the Brooklyn Handicap
The Brooklyn Invitational Stakes (formerly known as the Brooklyn Handicap) is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually in early June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, on Long Island. It currently is a Grade II event open to four-year-ol ...
, Suburban Handicap
The Suburban Stakes is an American Grade II Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Open to horses age three and older, it is now run at the mile distance on dirt for a $700,000 purse.
Named after the City and Su ...
, and the 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 wi ...
en route to being voted the Horse of the Year in 1909, and again in 1910. Another of his horses, King James, won other important races in 1909, including the Metropolitan Handicap
The Metropolitan Handicap, frequently called the "Met Mile", is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race held at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Open to horses age three and older, it is contested on dirt over a distance of one mile (8 furl ...
, Sheepshead Bay Handicap, and the California Handicap, and went on to win the Brooklyn Handicap in 1910. In 1909, Hildreth also won his second Belmont Stakes with his own horse, Joe Maddon
Joseph John Maddon (born February 8, 1954) is an American former professional baseball manager and coach. He has managed the Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago Cubs, and Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball.
Maddon began his coaching career in MLB ...
, and went on to capture the first of three consecutive leading owner and trainer honors in the United States.
The Hart–Agnew Law
The Hart–Agnew Law was an anti-gambling bill passed into law by the Legislature of the State of New York on June 11, 1908. It was an amalgam of bills enacted as Chapter 506 and 507 which were sponsored by conservative Assemblyman Merwin K. Hart ...
which banned parimutuel betting
Parimutuel betting or pool betting is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the "house-take" or "vigorish" are deducted, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all winnin ...
was passed by the New York Legislature
The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an official t ...
and resulted in the closure of all New York racetracks between 1911 and 1912. Hildreth and numerous other racing stables went to race in Canada where he won the 1911 Windsor Hotel Cup Handicap at Blue Bonnets Raceway
The Blue Bonnets Raceway (later named Hippodrome de Montréal) was a horse racing track and casino in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It closed on October 13, 2009, after 137 years of operation.
Demolition of the site began in mid-2018, after sitting ...
in Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
. On November 2, 1911, the ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' reported that Sam Hildreth and jockey
A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used to describe the individual ...
Carroll Shilling had sailed to England aboard the RMS Mauretania with the intent of racing there for the stable of American owner, Charles Kohler. However, Kohler subsequently set up operations in France and in 1912 Sam Hildreth trained a stable of horses for him at Val-d'Oise
Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674. , near Paris.
Sam Hildreth's stable trained for other prominent owners such as August Belmont Jr. for whom he won back-to-back Belmont Stakes in 1916 and 1917. He also met with great success training for Rancocas Stable
Rancocas Farm was an American thoroughbred horse racing stud farm and racing stable located on Monmouth Road ( County Road 537) in the Jobstown section of Springfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey.
Pierre Lorillard IV
The farm was foun ...
owned by wealthy oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
industrialist Harry F. Sinclair. For Sinclair he won three Belmont Stakes with Grey Lag
Grey Lag (1918–1942) was a Thoroughbred race horse born in Kentucky and bred by John E. Madden. At his Hamburg Place near Lexington, Kentucky, Maddon had a good stallion called Star Shoot which he bred to all of his mares. Out of a failed r ...
in 1921, Zev in 1923 and Mad Play
Mad Play (foaled 1921 in Kentucky) was an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred by August Belmont, Jr., he was sired by Fair Play, who also sired Man o' War, out of a Rock Sand mare, Mad Cap. He was a full brother to 1921 U.S. Champion ...
in 1924. In an era before the Triple Crown
Triple Crown may refer to:
Sports Horse racing
* Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing
* Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States)
** Triple Crown Trophy
** Triple Crown Productions
* Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing
* Trip ...
had any significance, Hildreth only entered a few horses in the 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 ...
because of the time restraints for the long journey to Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
. As such, David J. Leary is listed as the trainer of Zev for his win in the 1923 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 ...
. Back in New York, in October of that year, Zev defeated Epsom Derby
The Derby Stakes, also known as the Epsom Derby or the Derby, and as the Cazoo Derby for sponsorship reasons, is a Group 1 flat horse race in England open to three-year-old colts and fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey o ...
winner Papyrus
Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...
, marking the first time a Kentucky Derby winner defeated an English Derby winner.
Twice Sam Hildreth won more races in a year than any other trainer in the United States and was the top money-earning trainer nine times, a record that stood for more than sixty years until broken by D. Wayne Lukas
Darrell Wayne Lukas (born September 2, 1935 in Antigo, Wisconsin) is an American horse trainer and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee. He has won twenty Breeders' Cup races, received five Eclipse Awards for his accomplishments, and his horses ha ...
in 1992. Hildreth's seven Belmont Stakes victories ranks him second only to James G. Rowe, Sr. and five times his horses were chosen American Horse of the Year
The American Award for Horse of the Year, one of the Eclipse Awards, is the highest honor given in American thoroughbred horse racing. Because Thoroughbred horse racing in the United States has no governing body to sanction the various awards, "Hor ...
, the highest honor in thoroughbred horse racing.
In 1925, Hildreth co-wrote an article with James R. Crowell
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguati ...
titled "Down the Stretch" for ''The Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...
''. The two then collaborated on a history of American racing in a book titled "''The Spell of the Turf''" published in 1926 by J. B. Lippincott & Co. of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. In this book, he named Purchase
Purchasing is the process a business or organization uses to acquire goods or services to accomplish its goals. Although there are several organizations that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary greatly between ...
as one of the greatest horses he ever trained.
After forty-three years as a horse trainer, Sam Hildreth died at a hospital in Manhattan, New York
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
following an unsuccessful operation for an intestinal disorder. He was buried in Greenridge Cemetery
Greenridge Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Notable burials
* Seymour Ainsworth (1821–1890)
* George Sherman Batcheller (1837–1908)
* George S. Bolster (1913–1989)
* Charles Brackett (1892–1969)
* Edgar T. ...
, Saratoga Springs, New York
Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over 2 ...
.
In 1955, Sam Hildreth was posthumously inducted into the newly formed 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 Av ...
.
References
* Hildreth, Samuel C. and Crowell, James R. ''The Spell of the Turf: The Story of American Racing'' (1926) Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott & Co.
* Bowen, Edward L. '' Masters of the Turf: Ten Trainers Who Dominated Horse Racing's Golden Age'' (2007) Eclipse Press ()
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hildreth, Samuel Clay
1866 births
1929 deaths
Sportspeople from Independence, Missouri
American horse trainers
American racehorse owners and breeders
United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees
Burials at Greenridge Cemetery