Discontinued stakes race race | |
Location | Bowie Race Track, Bowie, Maryland, United States |
---|---|
Inaugurated | 1930 |
Race type | Thoroughbred - Flat racing |
Race information | |
Distance | 6 furlongs |
Surface | Dirt |
Track | left-handed |
Qualification | Three-year-olds & up |
Purse | $10,000 |
The Rowe Memorial Handicap was an American Thoroughbred horse race run between 1930 and 1954 at Bowie Race Track in Bowie, Maryland. A six furlong sprint run on dirt, the event was open to horses age three and older.
First run on April 5, 1930, the race was originally named to honor James Rowe, a widely respected trainer and future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee who had died in 1929. [1] However, his son James Jr., who had successfully followed in his father's footsteps, died from a heart attack in 1931 at age forty-two and the race name would be shortened to the "Rowe Memorial" to honor both men.
The inaugural James Rowe Memorial Handicap was won by Battleship, a son of the legendary Man o' War. [2] He was bred and raced on the flat by Walter Salmon but who would sell the horse to Marion duPont Scott at the end of 1931. She had Battleship trained for steeplechase racing and in 1934 he won the American Grand National, the most important steeplechase event in the United States. Sent to race in England, in 1938 Battleship became only the second American-bred horse to ever win the world's most prestigious steeplechase race, the Grand National. A 1969 U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee, through 2021 Battleship remains the only horse to have won both the American and English Grand Nationals. [3] [4]
Following the United States government's imposition of World War II rationing, the restrictions saw all four Maryland tracks having to run their 1944 spring meets at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course. The April 12, 1944 Rowe Memorial, raced on a muddy track, was won by the increasingly powerful Calumet Farm stable with their colt Pensive who won by a head over runner-up Porter's Cap owned by Charles S. Howard of Seabiscuit fame. [5] Pensive went on to win the May 6, 1944 Kentucky Derby and a week later, the May 13 Preakness Stakes. [6] [7]
The Rowe Memorial was run for the last time on April 17, 1954. For owner Constance Pistorio and her trainer J. Bowes Bond, it marked their third straight win of this event. [8] [9]
Speed record:
Most wins:
Most wins by a jockey:
Most wins by a trainer:
Most wins by an owner:
Year | Winner | Age | Jockey | Trainer | Owner | Dist. (furlongs) | Time | Win $ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1954 | Brazen Brat | 6 | Nick Shuk | J. Bowes Bond | Constance Pistorio | 6 f | 1:11.40 | $7,100 |
1953 | Tuscany | 5 | Nick Shuk | J. Bowes Bond | Constance Pistorio | 6 f | 1:11.00 | $7,700 |
1952 | Tuscany | 4 | Sam Boulmetis | J. Bowes Bond | Constance Pistorio | 6 f | 1:11.60 | $7,480 |
1951 | Call Over | 4 | Robert J. Martin | Edward J. Yowell | Bedford Stable | 6 f | 1:12.00 | $5,395 |
1950 | The Pincher | 4 | Ronnie Nash | George Mohr | Henry H. Hecht | 6 f | 1:11.80 | $6,275 |
1949 | Nearway | 4 | Nunzio Pariso | Thomas H. Heard Jr. | Claude C. Tanner | 6 f | 1:11.60 | $7,600 |
1948 | Repand | 4 | Logan Batcheller | James J. Rowan | Sylvester W. Labrot Jr. | 6 f | 1:13.80 | $8,175 |
1947 | Scholarship | 5 | Jack Westrope | Kenneth L. W. Force Jr. | George G. Gilbert Jr. | 6 f | 1:13.40 | $7,175 |
1946 | Swiv | 6 | Arnold Kirkland | Leo G. O'Donnell | Harold C. Genter | 6 f | 1:12.00 | $6,375 |
1945 | Harford | 5 | Carson Kirk | Phillip Brady | Ruth McClanaghan | 6 f | 1:13.00 | $3,200 |
1944 | Pensive | 3 | Conn McCreary | Ben A. Jones | Calumet Farm | 6 f | 1:15.00 | $6,375 |
1943 | Race not held | |||||||
1942 | Cape Cod | 4 | George Woolf | Raymond B. Archer | Grover C. Greer Jr. | 6 f | 1:12.60 | $4,600 |
1941 | Omission | 3 | Don Meade | J. P. "Sammy" Smith | Victor Emanuel | 6 f | 1:14.00 | $4,225 |
1940 | Honey Cloud | 6 | Danny Driscoll | Albert J. Abel | Dorothy Abel | 6 f | 1:11.80 | $4,175 |
1939 | Rough Time | 5 | Hilton Dabson | J. Yancey Christmas | J. Yancey Christmas | 6 f | 1:13.20 | $4,575 |
1938 | Sun Egret | 3 | Alfred Shelhamer | H. Guy Bedwell | A. C. Compton | 6 f | 1:13.80 | $4,250 |
1937 | Mucho Gusto | 5 | Jack Westrope | Robert F. Curran | Araho Stable (Mr. & Mrs. Walter O'Hara) | 6 f | 1:13.60 | $4,125 |
1936 | Bright Light | 3 | Harry Richards | John J. Greely Jr. | Shandon Farm Stables (Patrick A. & Richard J. Nash) | 6 f | 1:14.00 | $2,770 |
1935 | Good Harvest | 3 | Silvio Coucci | Hirsch Jacobs | B B Stable (Isidor Bieber) | 6 f | 1:13.80 | $2,530 |
1934 | Soon Over | 3 | Silvio Coucci | William Brennan | Greentree Stable | 6 f | 1:13.00 | $2,900 |
1933 | Race not held | |||||||
1932 | Towee | 3 | John Bejshak | Joseph H. Stotler | Sagamore Farm Stable | 6 f | 1:13.00 | $3,480 |
1931 | Mynheer | 3 | Arthur Robertson | William E. Caskey Jr. | William E. Caskey Jr. | 7 f | 1:26.20 | $3,390 |
1930 | Battleship | 3 | Louis Schaefer | John R. "Jack" Pryce | Walter J. Salmon Sr. | 7 f | 1:27.00 | $3,380 |
Native Dancer, nicknamed the Gray Ghost, was one of the most celebrated and accomplished Thoroughbred racehorses in American history and was the first horse made famous through the medium of television. He was a champion in each of his three years of racing, and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1963. In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century, he was ranked seventh.
Gallant Fox was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who is the second winner of the American Triple Crown.
Greentree Stable, in Red Bank, New Jersey, was a major American thoroughbred horse racing stable and breeding farm established in 1914 by Payne Whitney of the Whitney family of New York City. Payne Whitney operated a horse farm and stable at Saratoga Springs, New York with his brother Harry Payne Whitney, who also had a large stable of horses. Greentree Stable had a training base at Aiken, South Carolina, while Greentree Farm in Lexington, Kentucky was established in 1925 as its breeding arm.
The San Vicente Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race run annually at Santa Anita Park. A Grade II event, the race is open to three-year-old horses willing to race seven furlongs on the dirt and currently carries a purse of $200,000.
Pensive was a bright chestnut Thoroughbred racehorse that in 1944 won the first two legs of the U.S. Triple Crown. Pensive also began only the second sire line "hat trick" in the Kentucky Derby, as his son Ponder won the 1949 Derby, and Ponder's son Needles won the 1956 edition.
Count Turf was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1951 Kentucky Derby. His grandsire Reigh Count won the 1928 Kentucky Derby and his sire Count Fleet won the 1943 Kentucky Derby and went on to win the Triple Crown. The only other father/son/grandson combination to win the Kentucky Derby was Pensive, Ponder, and Needles.
Peter Pan (1904–1933) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse and sire, bred and raced by prominent horseman, James R. Keene. As winner of the Belmont Stakes, the Brooklyn Derby and the Brighton Handicap, he was later inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. His progeny included many famous American racehorses, including several winners of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.
Bull Lea was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who is best known as the foundation sire responsible for making Calumet Farm one of the most successful racing stables in American history. In their article on Calumet Farm, the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington, Kentucky wrote that Bull Lea was "one of the greatest sires in Thoroughbred breeding history."
Preston Morris Burch was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse trainer, breeder, and owner.
John Milton Gaver Sr. was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse trainer.
Victorian (1925–1934) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that was bred in Kentucky. He was bred and raced by Harry P. Whitney and is best known as the winner of the 1928 Preakness Stakes in which he was ridden by future Hall of Fame jockey Sonny Workman.
The Wilson Handicap was an American Thoroughbred horse race run from 1930 through 1958. Inaugurated as the Wilson Stakes at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York, it was named in honor of the late Richard Thornton Wilson Jr., a prominent Thoroughbred owner and president of Saratoga Race Course.
Double Jay (1944–1972) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred by John W. Stanley in Lexington, Kentucky, he was purchased as a yearling for $19,000 by Wilmington, Delaware businessmen James V. Tigani and James Boines who raced them under their newly formed partnership, Ridgewood Stable.
Pavot was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse. In a career that lasted from 1944 to 1946 he ran thirty-two times and won fourteen races. He was the leader of his generation in 1944 when he was named American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt. The following year he recorded his most important win in the Belmont Stakes.
Mate was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1931 Preakness Stakes.
Upset is notable as the only horse to have ever defeated Man o' War. Man o' War, who would go on to a career in which he won 20 of his 21 starts, faced Upset in the seventh running of the Sanford Memorial Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on August 13, 1919. Losing by a neck, Man o' War had been fractious at the starting line and got a bad start, leaving close to last. He also carried 15 pounds more than Upset. Upset finished second in the 1920 Kentucky Derby, a head behind Paul Jones, and also was second in the 1920 Preakness Stakes behind Man o' War.
The Butler Handicap was an American Thoroughbred horse race first run at Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York in 1935 as the Butler Memorial Handicap. The race was named in honor of Empire City Race Track owner James Butler who had died in 1934. Due to wartime rationing regulations, in 1943 the race was moved to Jamaica Race Course in Jamaica, New York and would remain there until its cancellation in 1953.
The Empire City Derby was an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually from 1917 through 1933 at Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York. A race for three-year-old horses of either sex, the event was contested at a mile and one-eighth at inception until 1920 when it was set at what became known as the "Derby distance" of a mile and one-quarter. With the Brooklyn Derby at Belmont Park having changed its name to the Dwyer Stakes, the Empire City Derby was then the only Derby event in the Northeastern United States.
The Fleetwing Handicap was an American Thoroughbred race for horses age three and older that was run between 1908 and 1953. Inaugurated at Empire City Race Track in Yonkers, New York it remained there through 1942 with the exception of 1915 when it was temporarily hosted by Belmont Park. In 1942 the Empire City Racetrack ended Thoroughbred racing, reverting to its origins as a facility exclusively for harness racing. As such, in 1943 the Fleeting Handicap was transferred to the Jamaica Race Course in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
The Bowie Handicap at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland was a Thoroughbred horse race run between 1909 and 1938. A race on dirt, this once much anticipated event that drew some of the very best horses in the country was contested at distances from a mile and one-quarter to as much as two miles.