Fall Handicap

The Fall Handicap was an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually at Sheepshead Bay Race Track in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York from 1894 thru 1909 for horses of either sex age three and older. For easier identification purposes, the race is sometimes referred to as the Coney Island Fall Handicap. For its first two editions, the Fall Handicap was run on the track's short futurity course at 5¾ furlongs then for the next twelve runnings at 6 furlongs and the final two years at 6½ furlongs. The Fall Handicap was the first of the track's autumn serials, preceding the Ocean Handicap at 6½ furlongs and the Omnium Handicap at 1⅛ miles.[1]

Fall Handicap
Discontinued stakes race
LocationSheepshead Bay Race Track, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York
Inaugurated1894–1909
Race typeThoroughbredFlat racing
Websitewww.pegasusworldcup.com
Race information
Distance6½ furlongs
SurfaceDirt
Trackleft-handed
QualificationThree Years Old & older

Historical notes

Among the winners of the Fall Handicap, the three-year-old colt Ornament won in 1897 and would earn American Horse of the Year and American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse honors. The great gelding Roseben won the 1906 running in a year he would dominate American sprint racing. Roseben's successful career would see him inducted into the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame.

In 1895, the American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly of 1894 named The Butterflies defeated future Hall of Fame inductee Domino. In 1904 another filly named Hamburg Belle defeated the 1902 Kentucky Derby winner, Alan-a-Dale who had also run second to the filly Dainty in the second part of the fall serials, the Ocean Handicap.

Demise of the Fall Handicap

After years of uncertainty, on June 11, 1908, the Republican controlled New York Legislature under Governor Charles Evans Hughes passed the Hart–Agnew anti-betting legislation with penalties allowing for fines and up to a year in prison.[2] The owners of Sheepshead Bay Race Track, and other racing facilities in New York State, struggled to stay in business without income from betting.[3] Racetrack operators had no choice but to drastically reduce the purse money being paid out which resulted in the Fall Handicap offering a purse in 1909 that was nearly one-third of what it had been in earlier years. These small purses made racing horses highly unprofitable and impossible for even the most successful owners to continue in business. As such, for the 1910 racing season management of the Sheepshead Bay facility dropped some of its less important stakes races and used the purse money to bolster its most important events.[4] The effect was to place the Fall Handicap on hiatus.[5] Further restrictive legislation was passed by the New York Legislature in 1910 which deepened the financial crisis for track operators and 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] 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 there, and a number remained 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 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 Sheepshead Bay horse racing facility and it never reopened.[8][9]

Records

Speed record:

  • 6 furlongs : 1:12.40 – Roseben (1906)

Most wins:

  • No horse ever won this race more than once.

Most wins by a jockey:

  • 2 – Henry Griffin (1894, 1895)
  • 2 – Lucien Lyne (1904, 1906)

Most wins by a trainer:

Most wins by an owner:

Winners

Year
Winner
Age
Jockey
Trainer
Owner
Dist.
(Miles)
Time
Win
US$
1909 Besom 4 Charles Grand Nathan L. Byer Philip S. P. Randolph 6.5 F 1:18.60 $1,050
1908 Half Sovereign 3 James Butler Jr. John Whalen August Belmont Jr. 6.5 F 1:18.20 $1,125
1907 De Mund 3 Joe Notter William M. Garth Paul J. Rainey 6 F 1:13.40 $2,480
1906 Roseben 5 Lucien Lyne Frank D. Weir Davy C. Johnson 6 F 1:12.40 $2,920
1905 Prince Hamburg 3 Gene Hildebrand John W. Rogers Harry Payne Whitney 6 F 1:14.20 $2,930
1904 Hamburg Belle 3 Lucien Lyne A. Jack Joyner Sydney Paget 6 F 1:12.80 $2,780
1903 Shot Gun 3 Willie Gannon Walter B. Jennings Walter B. Jennings 6 F 1:14.40 $2,100
1902 King Pepper 4 Arthur Redfern Crit Davis Pepper Stable (James E. Pepper) 6 F 1:12.80 $1,450
1901 Coburg 4 Patrick A. McCue Barry Littlefield Joseph E. Seagram 6 F 1:13.20 $1,450
1900 Waring 3 John Bullman Frank M. Taylor Frank M. Taylor 6 F 1:14.00 $1,450
1899 Previous 4 Winfield O'Connor Julius J. Bauer Bromley & Co. (Joseph E. Bromley & Arthur Featherstone) 6 F 1:13.40 $1,150
1898 Miss Miriam 3 Tod Sloan John Hyland William C. Whitney Ŧ 6 F 1:15.40 $1,150
1897 Ornament 3 Alonzo Clayton Charles T. Patterson Charles T. Patterson 6 F 1:14.40 $1,125
1896 Gotham 4 John J. McCafferty John J. McCafferty David Gideon & John Daly 6 F 1:15.00 $1,125
1895 The Butterflies 3 Henry Griffin John Hyland David Gideon & John Daly 5.75 F 1:09.80 $1,125
1894 Lady Violet 3 Henry Griffin A. Jack Joyner August Belmont Jr. 5.75 F 1:10.80 $1,450

Ŧ Raced under the name of Sydney Paget for owner William C. Whitney.

References

  1. "Condensed History Of The Fall Handicap". Daily Racing Form. 1908-08-30. Retrieved 2019-01-28 via University of Kentucky Archives.
  2. "Penalties in the New York Bills". Daily Racing Form. 1908-01-18. Retrieved 2018-10-26 via University of Kentucky Archives.
  3. "Keep Up Betting Ban". New York Times. 1908-09-01. Retrieved 2018-11-06.
  4. "Coney Island Clubs Sturdy Stand". Daily Racing Form. 1908-08-11. Retrieved 2019-02-03 via University of Kentucky Archives.
  5. "Striking Falling off in Value of Ten Greatest Stakes". Daily Racing Form. 1910-07-16. Retrieved 2018-10-15 via University of Kentucky Archives.
  6. "Race Track Bill Defeated In Senate; Measure Modifying Directors' Liability for Gambling Fails of Passage". The New York Times. July 14, 1911. Retrieved September 2, 2017 via NYTimes.com.
  7. "Racing Through the Century". Thoroughbred Times. February 14, 2000. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
  8. "Destruction Wrought by Hughes". Daily Racing Form. 1908-12-15. Retrieved 2018-11-30 via University of Kentucky Archives.
  9. "Famous Old Track is Sold". Daily Racing Form. 1914-11-17. Retrieved 2018-11-30 via University of Kentucky Archives.
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