Partridge Stakes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn,
New York, United States
| Class | Discontinued stakes |
|---|---|
| Location | Sheepshead Bay Race Track Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Inaugurated | 1890 |
| Race type | Thoroughbred – Flat racing |
| Race information | |
| Distance | 6 furlongs |
| Surface | Turf |
| Track | Left-handed |
| Qualification | Two years old |
The Partridge Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually at Sheepshead Bay Race Track from 1890 through 1909. A race on turf over a distance of six furlongs (3/4 of a mile), it was open to two-year-old horses of either sex.[1]
In the 1891 Partridge Stakes Azra ran third to winner Rex but went on to win the 1892 Kentucky Derby.
The three-year-old gelding Dolly Spanker won the 1903 edition of the Partridge Stakes and went on to a long and successful career winning on both turf and dirt. A popular runner, the New York Times called Dolly Spanker "one of the best-know flat racers in the country" and had been "one of the best handicap horses on the Metropolitan tracks."[2]
The End of a Race and of a Racetrack
The 1908 passage of the Hart–Agnew anti-betting legislation by the New York Legislature under Republican Governor Charles Evans Hughes created havoc in the state's racing industry and would lead to a compete shutdown of racing in 1911 and 1912.[3][4] The owners of Sheepshead Bay Race Track, and other racing facilities in New York State, struggled to stay in business without income from betting.[5] Racetrack operators had no choice but to drastically reduce the purse money being paid out which resulted in the Partridge Stakes offering a substantially reduced purse in 1908 with further reduction in 1909 to where it less than one-sixth 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.[6] A February 21, 1913 ruling by the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division saw horse racing return in 1913.[7] However, it was too late for the Sheepshead Bay horse racing facility and it never reopened.[8][9]