Alabama Stakes
Horse race / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Alabama Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race open to three-year-old fillies. Inaugurated in 1872, the Grade I race is run over a distance of one and one-quarter miles on the dirt track at Saratoga Race Course. Held in mid August, it currently offers a purse of $600,000.[1] In 2010 it became the third leg of the American Triple Tiara of Thoroughbred Racing, after the Acorn Stakes and Coaching Club American Oaks.
Grade I stakes race | |
Location | Saratoga Race Course Saratoga Springs, New York, United States |
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Inaugurated | 1872 |
Race type | Thoroughbred – Flat racing |
Website | |
Race information | |
Distance | 11⁄4 miles (10 furlongs) |
Surface | Dirt |
Track | left-handed |
Qualification | Three-year-old fillies |
Weight | 121 lbs. (54.9 kg) |
Purse | $600,000 |
The Alabama Stakes is named in honor of William Cottrell of Mobile, Alabama. "Alabama" was the name settled on because Cottrell was too modest to have a race named for him personally. The inaugural running took place on July 19, 1872 and was won by a chestnut filly named Woodbine owned by prominent New York financier August Belmont Sr.[2]
The race was not run from 1893 to 1896 and 1898 to 1900. The 1908 passage of the Hart–Agnew anti-betting legislation by the New York Legislature under Republican Governor Charles Evans Hughes led to a state-wide shutdown of racing in 1911 and 1912.[3][4] During World War II, from 1943 through 1945 the Alabama Stakes was run at Belmont Park.[5]
The race has been contested at various distances:
- 1 mile and 1 furlong – 1872–1901, 1904, 1906–1916
- 1+1⁄16 miles – 1901, 1902, and on the turf in 1903
- 1+5⁄16 miles – 1905
- 1+1⁄4 miles – 1917 to present