Bay Ridge Handicap
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Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York, United States
| Class | Discontinued stakes |
|---|---|
| Location | Sheepshead Bay Race Track Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Inaugurated | 1887–1910 |
| Race type | Thoroughbred – Flat racing |
| Race information | |
| Distance | 1 1/16 miles: 1910 1 1/4 miles: 1901–1909 |
| Surface | Dirt |
| Track | left-handed |
| Qualification | Three years old & up |
The Bay Ridge Handicap was an American Thoroughbred horse race run from 1901 through 1910 at Sheepshead Bay Race Track in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. A race for horses age three and older of either sex, it was run on dirt over a distance of a mile and a quarter until 1910 when it was reduced to a mile and a sixteenth.
The Bay Ridge Handicap was last run on June 18, 1910 after the Republican-controlled New York Legislature under Governor Charles Evans Hughes passed the Hart–Agnew anti-betting legislation on June 11, 1908. The owners of Sheepshead Bay Race Track, and other racing facilities in New York State, struggled to stay in business without betting.[1] Racetrack operators had no choice but to drastically reduce the purse money being paid out which resulted in the Bay Ridge Handicap offering a purse in 1910 that was one-fifth of 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.[2] Further restrictive legislation was passed by the New York Legislature in 1910 which resulted in the deepening of the financial crisis for track operators and led to a complete shut down of racing across the state during 1911 and 1912. When a Court ruling saw racing return in 1913 it was too late for the Sheepshead Bay facility and it never reopened.[3][4]