Dash Stakes

Dash Stakes
Discontinued stakes race
LocationSheepshead Bay Race Track, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York
Inaugurated1887–1909
Race typeThoroughbredFlat racing
Race information
Distancefurlongs
TrackDirt, left-handed
QualificationTwo years old
PurseUS$330

The Dash Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race first run in 1887 at Sheepshead Bay Race Track in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. A race for two-year-old horses of either sex, it was run on dirt over a distance of 5¾ furlongs.[1]

An annual event, the Dash Stakes had its final running as an overnight purse on September 1, 1909 after the Republican controlled New York Legislature under Governor Charles Evans Hughes passed the Hart–Agnew anti-betting legislation on June 11, 1908 with penalties allowing for fines and up to a year in prison.[2] [3] The owners of Sheepshead Bay Race Track, and other racing facilities in New York State, struggled to stay in business without betting.[4] Racetrack operators had no choice but to drastically reduce the purse money being paid out; by 1909 the Dash Stakes offered a purse that was as little as one twelfth of what it had been in earlier years.[5] Further restrictive legislation was passed by the New York Legislature in 1910 which deepened the financial crisis for track operators and led to a complete shut down of racing across the state during 1911 and 1912. When a court ruling saw racing return in 1913 it was too late for the Sheepshead Bay facility and it never reopened.[6][7]

  1. ^ "Winners of the Dash Stakes". Daily Racing Form. 1909-09-01. Retrieved 2019-01-15 – via University of Kentucky Archives.
  2. ^ "New York Form Chart". Daily Racing Form. 1909-09-02. Retrieved 2019-01-15 – via University of Kentucky Archives.
  3. ^ "Penalties in the New York Bills". Daily Racing Form. 1908-01-18. Retrieved 2018-10-26 – via University of Kentucky Archives.
  4. ^ "Keep Up Betting Ban". New York Times. 1908-09-01. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
  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. ^ "Destruction Wrought by Hughes". Daily Racing Form. 1908-12-15. Retrieved 2018-11-30 – via University of Kentucky Archives.
  7. ^ "Famous Old Track is Sold". Daily Racing Form. 1914-11-17. Retrieved 2018-11-30 – via University of Kentucky Archives.