Way back in 1873 -- two years before the first Kentucky Derby – Pimlico Race Course, outside Baltimore, Maryland, hosted a stakes race for 3-year-olds during its first spring race meet.
Oden Bowie, governor at the time, named the 1 ½-mile race for Preakness (the horse), who was bred by Milton Holbrook Sanford’s Preakness Stud in Preakness (Wayne Township), New Jersey.
In 1870, on the first day of racing at Pimlico, Preakness won the Dinner Party Stakes. And that race for 3-year-olds on May 27, 1873? The Preakness Stakes, which drew a field of seven with Survivor winning by 10 lengths – a record margin which stood until 2004, when Smarty Jones won by 11 ½ lengths.
Survivor earned $2,050 for the victory.
The word Preakness was said to have been derived from the Native American name “Pra-qua-les” or “Quail Woods” for the area in New Jersey where the farm was located.
Another legend tied to ‘Preakness’ involves the jockey. After the win in the Dinner Party, jockey Billy Hayward is said to have untied a silk bag of gold coins that hung from a wire stretched across the track from the judge’s stand.
This is alleged to be where the term ‘wire’ was used to show the finish line and how the money horses earned were called ‘purses’ though the actual term ‘purse’ had been in use long before the first Preakness.
In 1890, Morris Park Racecourse in the Bronx, New York, hosted the Preakness, and the race was opened to ages 3 and up and run under handicap conditions. The race was won by a 5-year-old horse named Montague and after that year, no Preakness was contested for three years.
From 1894 through 1908, the Preakness was held at Gravesend Race Track on Coney Island in New York and returned to Pimlico in 1909.
Seven editions of the Preakness Stakes have been run under handicap conditions beginning in 1890 and again from 1910 to 1915. During these years, the race was known as the Preakness Handicap.
With historic Pimlico torn down and being rebuilt, Saturday’s Preakness – now, of course, at 1 3/16 miles and the second leg of the Triple Crown -- will be held for the first time at Laurel Park, about 30 miles away.
The 2027 edition of the Preakness is scheduled to return to the new Pimlico Race Course.
The writing team at US Racing is comprised of both full-time and part-time contributors with expertise in various aspects of the Sport of Kings.
