Belles Stakes

The Belles Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually for two-year-old fillies from 1886 through 1908 at Sheepshead Bay Race Track in Sheepshead Bay, New York. The race was run on dirt and for its final seven editions at a distance of five and one-half furlongs.[1]

Belles Stakes
Discontinued Stakes race
LocationSheepshead Bay Race Track
Sheepshead Bay,
New York, United States
Inaugurated1886-1908
Race typeThoroughbred - Flat racing
Race information
Distance5¾ Furlongs
SurfaceDirt
Trackleft-handed
QualificationTwo-year-old fillies

Historical notes

In 1889 the Belles Stakes was won by Reclare who was purchased by Henry Warnke for $475 at a July 1888 yearling sale. A working-class railroad employee, Warnke was a flagman with the Brighton Beach Railway and as a result of his filly's popularity fans and the media dubbed Reclare as "the flagman's filly." Going into her three-year-old campaign, a feature story in the April 1990 edition of The Illustrated American said that Reclare was "acknowledged the greatest of the two-year-old fillies of 1889."[2]

La Tosca won the 1890 Belles Stakes and went on to be recognized as that year's American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly. She would repeat as the American Champion Filly in 1891.

Two years later, Lady Violet would also earn 1892 American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly honors.[3]

1905 winner Whimsical also won that year's Golden Rod Stakes at Sheepshead Bay and notably went on to win the 1906 Preakness Stakes Classic.[4]

The Hart-Agnew law repercussions

On June 11, 1908, the Republican controlled New York Legislature under Governor Charles Evans Hughes passed the Hart-Agnew anti-betting legislation.[5] The owners of Sheepshead Bay Race Track, and other racing facilities in New York State, struggled to stay in business without income from betting.[6] Racetrack operators had no choice but to drastically reduce the purse money being paid out which resulted in the Belles Stakes offering a purse in 1908 that was forty percent less than what it had been in earlier years. These small purses made horse racing unprofitable and impossible for even the most successful horse owners to continue in business. As such, for the 1909 racing season management of the Sheepshead Bay facility dropped some of its minor stakes races and used the purse money to bolster its most important events.[7] As a result the Belles Stakes was not run in 1909.

The end of a racetrack

In spite of strong opposition by prominent owners such as August Belmont Jr. and Harry Payne Whitney, reform legislators were not happy when they learned that betting was still going on at racetracks between individuals and they had further restrictive legislation passed by the New York Legislature in 1910.[8] The Agnew-Perkins Law, a series of four bills and recorded as the Executive Liability Act, made it possible for racetrack owners and members of its board of directors to be fined and imprisoned if anyone was found betting, even privately, anywhere on their premises.[9] After a 1911 amendment to the law that would limit the liability of owners and directors was defeated in the Legislature, every racetrack in New York State shut down.[10]

Owners, whose horses of racing age had nowhere to go, began sending them, their trainers and their jockeys to race in England and France. Many horses ended their racing careers there and a number remained to become an important part of the European horse breeding industry. Thoroughbred Times reported that more than 1,500 American horses were sent overseas between 1908 and 1913 and of them at least 24 were either past, present, or future Champions.[11] When a February 21, 1913 ruling by the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division saw horse racing return in 1913.[12] However, it was too late for the Sheepshead Bay horse racing facility and it never reopened.[13][14]

Records

Speed record:

  • 1:06.80 @ 5.5 furlongs - Petticoat (1908)
  • 1:09.80 @ 5.75 furlongs - Amicitia (1901)
  • 1:15.50 @ 6 furlongs - Bessie June (1886)

Most wins by a jockey:

  • 2 - Henry Griffin (1894, 1896)
  • 2 - Jack Martin (1902, 1905)
  • 2 - Willie Simms (1891, 1892)

Most wins by a trainer:

Most wins by an owner:

Winners
Year
 Winner
 Age
 Jockey
 Trainer
 Owner
 Dist.
(Furlongs)		 Time
 Win$
1908 Petticoat 2 Eddie Dugan A. Jack Joyner Harry Payne Whitney 5.5 F 1:06.80 $1,050
1907 Explosion 2 Walter Miller Thomas Welsh Newcastle Stable 5.5 F 1:08.40 $2,525
1906 Kennyetto 2 Joe Notter William Hayward Jr. John Sanford 5.5 F 1:06.40 $2,625
1905 Whimsical 2 Jack Martin Tim J. Gaynor Tim J. Gaynor 5.5 F 1:07.40 $2,625
1904 Tradition 2 Lucien Lyne A. Jack Joyner Sydney Paget 5.5 F 1:06.20 $2,450
1903 Memories 2 Grover Fuller Woodford Clay Woodford Clay 5.5 F 1:06.00 $2,570
1902 Scioto 2 Jack Martin Robert Tucker Samuel S. Brown 5.5 F 1:07.60 $2,500
1901 Amicitia 2 John Bullman John J. Hyland August Belmont Jr. 5.75 F 1:09.80 $1,740
1900 Noonday 2 Danny Maher James G. Rowe, Sr. James R. & Foxhall P. Keene 5.75 F 1:10.40 $1,890
1899 Musette 2 Willie Shaw William Hayward Sr. J. S. Ferguson 5.75 F 1:10.60 $1,660
1898 Black Venus 2 Nash Turner H. Eugene Leigh Ella O. Pepper 5.75 F 1:12.00 $1,880
1897 La Goleta 2 Tod Sloan Jim Garland Elias J. Baldwin 5.75 F 1:11.40 $1,430
1896 Cleophus 2 Henry Griffin Hardy A. Campbell Jr. Michael F. Dwyer 5.75 F 1:12.00 $1,425
1895 One I Love 2 Samuel Doggett John J. Hyland William P. Thompson 5.75 F 1:11.40 $1,425
1894 Irish Reel 2 Henry Griffin William Lakeland James R. & Foxhall P. Keene 5.75 F 1:11.40 $2,005
1893 Queenlike 2 Mr. Bryant Thomas Clay McDowell Thomas Clay McDowell 5.75 F 1:12.40 $1,675
1892 Lady Violet 2 Willie Simms A. Jack Joyner Blemton Stable 5.75 F 1:11.80 $1,690
1891 Promenade 2 Willie Simms Labold Bros. 5.75 F 1:11.00 $2,040
1890 La Tosca 2 Anthony Hamilton James G. Rowe, Sr. August Belmont Sr. 5.75 F 1:08.40 $2,130
1889 Reclare 2 Marty Bergen Henry Warnke, Jr. Henry Warnke & Son 5.75 F 1:10.60 $2,095
1888 Sonoma 2 Casey Winchell Matthew Byrnes James B. A. Haggin 6 F 1:17.60 $1,890
1887 Bandusia 2 George Church John Huggins Alexander J. Cassatt 6 F 1:16.50 $1,500
1886 Bessie June 2 Jim McLaughlin Frank McCabe Dwyer Brothers Stable 6 F 1:15.50 $1,850
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References
  1. "Winners of the Belles Stakes". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1909-09-02. Retrieved 2019-02-17.
  2. "American Race-Horses V., Reclare". The Illustrated American, page 235. 1890-04-26. Retrieved 2019-08-21.
  3. The Bloodhorse.com Champion's history charts Archived September 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Whimsical Easily Won The Preakness Stakes". New York Times, page 7. 1906-05-23. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  5. "Penalties in the New York Bills". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1908-01-18. Retrieved 2018-10-26.
  6. "Keep Up Betting Ban". New York Times. 1908-09-01. Retrieved 2018-11-06.
  7. "Coney Island Clubs Sturdy Stand". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1908-08-11. Retrieved 2019-02-03.
  8. Liebman, Bennett (May 24, 2009). "The First American Triple Crown Series". The Rail. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
  9. "Racing Men Attack Anti-Betting Bills - Place Every Man Who Makes Private Wager in Jeopardy". New York Times. 1910-04-07. Retrieved 2019-06-29.
  10. Times, Special To The New York (July 14, 1911). "Race Track Bill Defeated In Senate; Measure Modifying Directors' Liability for Gambling Fails of Passage". Retrieved September 2, 2017 – via NYTimes.com.
  11. "Thoroughbred Times". www.ThoroughbredTimes.com. February 14, 2000. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
  12. "Oral Betting Held Legal: Appellate Division of New York Supreme Court Renders Important Decision". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1913-02-22. Retrieved 2019-06-29.
  13. "Destruction Wrought by Hughes". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1908-12-15. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
  14. "Famous Old Track is Sold". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1914-11-17. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
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