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Yonkers Handicap
Horse race From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Yonkers Handicap was an American Thoroughbred horse race held between 1900 and 1946.[1] Created by the Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York, it remained there through 1945 with the exception of 1915 when it was temporarily hosted by Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York.[2]
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The 1911-1912 statewide shutdown of horse racing
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On June 11, 1908, the Republican controlled New York Legislature under Governor Charles Evans Hughes passed the Hart-Agnew anti-betting legislation.[3] The owners of Empire City Race Track, and other racing facilities in New York State, struggled to stay in business without income from betting.[4]
Racetrack operators had no choice but to drastically reduce the purse money being paid out which resulted in the purse for the Yonkers Handicap in 1909 cut by more than 40 percent. These small purses made horse racing unprofitable and impossible for even the most successful horse owners to continue in business. As such, for the 1910 racing season management of the New York racetracks dropped some of its minor stakes races and used the purse money to bolster its most important events. Even with additional funding, the 1915 Yonkers Handicap was little more than one-fifth of what it had been in 1908.[5]
In spite of strong opposition by Empire City's owner James Butler as well as 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. Recorded as the Executive Liability Act, the legislation 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. After a 1911 amendment to the law to limit the liability of owners and directors was defeated, every racetrack in New York State shut down.[6] As a result the Yonkers Handicap was not run in 1911 through 1913.
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 overseas and a number remained there 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 National Champions.[7]
When a February 21, 1913 ruling by the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division Court saw horse racing return in 1913 it was too late for the Empire City racing facility and the race would be run there for one final time on July 12, 1914. The financial difficulties brought on by the Hart-Agnew Law saw the Empire City track close and the race transferred to the Jamaica Race Course in Jamaica, New York where it was run in 1945 then cancelled after the 1946 edition.[8]
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Records
Winners of the Yonkers Handicap broke the track record on four occasions and tied the existing record once.
| Year |
Winner |
Distance |
Time |
Record type |
| 1910 | Dalmatian | 11⁄16 | 1:45.20 | NTR |
| 1914 | Borrow | 11⁄16 | 1:44.60 | NTR |
| 1917 | Spur | 11⁄16 | 1:44.60 | ETR |
| 1940 | Sickle T | 11⁄16 | 1:43.80 | NTR |
| 1942 | Apache | 11⁄16 | 1:43.20 | NTR |
Most wins:
- 2 - Spur (1917, 1918)
- 2 - Sickle T. (1939, 1940)
- 2 - Apache (1942, 1943)
Most wins by a jockey:
- 3 - James Stout (1941, 1942, 1943)
Most wins by a trainer:
- 3 - James E. Fitzsimmons (1941, 1942, 1943)
Most wins by an owner:
- 6 - James Butler (1917, 1918, 1919, 1930, 1932, 1933)
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Winners
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References
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