Alabama Stakes

Alabama Stakes
Grade I stakes race
LocationSaratoga Race Course
Saratoga Springs, New York, United States
Inaugurated1872
Race typeThoroughbred – Flat racing
Website[1]
Race information
Distance11⁄4 miles (10 furlongs)
SurfaceDirt
Trackleft-handed
QualificationThree-year-old fillies
Weight121 lbs. (54.9 kg)
Purse$600,000

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.

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
  1. ^ "Alabama Stakes". NYRA. 2020-04-14. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
  2. ^ "Saratoga – The Races". Wheeling Daily Register. West Virginia. 1872-07-20. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  3. ^ "Penalties in the New York Bills". Daily Racing Form. 1908-01-18. Retrieved 2018-10-26 – via University of Kentucky Archives.
  4. ^ "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.
  5. ^ "G.D. Widener's Stefanita Captures $17,425 Alabama Stakes at Belmont". New York Times. 1943-08-05. Section Sports, page 20. Retrieved 2020-04-16.