When the gates open at Pimlico Racecourse every Could, horse racing followers have a good time not simply the Preakness Stakes, however a practice rooted within the imaginative and prescient of 1 man: Auden Bowie. Bowie was a governor and sportsman who acknowledged Maryland’s potential to grow to be a nationwide chief in thoroughbred horse racing. His dedication to construct a first-class racecourse led to the creation of Pimlico Racecourse in 1870. The racetrack will quickly host one in every of America’s most prestigious races. The primary Preakness Stakes was held in 1873, cementing the state’s standing as a sporting capital, a practice that continues greater than 150 years later.
Bowie’s legacy is woven into the wealthy material of Maryland’s racing heritage. From his daring ambitions for Pimlico to the founding of traditional races just like the Preakness, his story is one in every of imaginative and prescient, perseverance and the timeless appeal of the thundering sound of hoofs on the third Saturday in Could.
farmer and politician
Like many gents of his time, Auden Bowie beloved horses and racing. Because the eldest son of William Duckett Bowie and Eliza Mary Auden, Bowie inherited his household’s Fairview Plantation close to Collington, Maryland. He was first educated by personal tutors at Fairview, then after his mom’s dying attended St. John’s School in Annapolis, after which St. Mary’s Seminary and College, graduating in 1845.
After finishing his training, Bowie joined the Military and served within the Mexican-American Conflict, rising to the rank of captain by the tip of the warfare. He then returned to Maryland and entered politics, following within the footsteps of his father and uncle Robert Bowie. Auden gained a seat within the state Home of Representatives, serving from 1849 to 1867, after which served within the Maryland State Senate earlier than working for governor, a place his uncle had twice held. Auden Bowie turned the primary state governor after the Civil Conflict in 1869, and retired from politics on the finish of his time period in 1872.
Along with Fairview Plantation, the Bowie household additionally constructed the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad. This related southern Maryland with different components of the mid-Atlantic coast, permitting the area to grow to be extra commercially developed. This wealth allowed Bowie to spend his post-political life investing in thoroughbred breeding and racing. Horses like Crickmore, Oriole and Dickens competed in Bowie’s purple and white striped silks, and William Woodward, who would go on to breed and personal Triple Crown winners Gallant Fox and Omaha, sought out Fairview’s bloodline after Bowie’s dying in 1894.
Auden Bowie’s most essential contribution to the game started not in Maryland, however in Saratoga Springs, New York, the place the celebration impressed the classics.
sportsman and visionary
Earlier than turning into governor of Maryland, Bowie traveled north to Saratoga Springs, New York, to observe races on the fledgling Saratoga Race Course. The realm had been a hub for horse racing lengthy earlier than the brand new racetrack opened in 1863, however the brand new facility, with names like John Morrissey, William Travers, and Leonard Jerome, made Saratoga an annual vacation spot for prime stables. Throughout Bowie’s 1868 go to, his pal Milton Sanford gained the two 1/4-mile Saratoga Cup with Lancaster, and the proprietor channeled the joy of that victory into a celebration on the Union Corridor Lodge. Bowie was among the many celebrants, however historical past reveals that this was fairly a fuss.
Investor John Hunter known as for the night time to be commemorated with a stakes race. Bowie agreed, suggesting that such a contest needs to be held in Maryland, and advised {that a} new racetrack be constructed close to Baltimore. A number of horse house owners, together with Sanford, have been in attendance and pledged to enter the Dinner Get together Stakes, tentatively scheduled for 2 years from now. Upon his return, Bowie started work on constructing a brand new racetrack close to Baltimore.
The Maryland Jockey Membership was based in 1743 and existed in numerous varieties from the Revolutionary Conflict via the nineteenth century.th On the finish of the century, it held occasional conferences in Annapolis earlier than shifting to Baltimore. They’d been working a central course close to the town on Frederick Pike, however determined to alter to a racetrack proposed by Bowie. MJC bought 70 acres of land close to Jones Falls for $23,500 and constructed Pimlico Racecourse, named after the world across the new facility, for $25,000. Bowie’s new racetrack, promised two years earlier on the Union Corridor Lodge, opened on October 25, 1870 with a four-race card. The third race is the long-awaited Dinner Get together Stakes.
Seven horses have been despatched to the publish, representing house owners similar to August Belmont, Milton Sanford, and Bowie himself, for a handbag of $19,000. Preakness, a brown colt out of Sanford and a son of Lexington, made historical past by defeating Thomas Doswell’s Ecliptic to win the Two Mile Stakes and turning into the primary winner of the Dinner Get together Stakes, which stays a part of Pimlico’s stakes program greater than 150 years later. Preakness raced for six extra seasons, beginning 39 races and retiring with a report of 18 wins, 12 seconds and a couple of/3.
Three years after successful the inaugural Dinner Get together Stakes, the Maryland Jockey Membership has added a brand new stakes race for 3-year-old horses to its calendar, a 1.5-mile race named after Sanford’s horse. The primary Preakness Stakes was the second of 4 races held on Could 27, 1873, and featured seven horses competing for $2,050 in prize cash. H. Value McGrath raced Artist two years earlier than successful his first Kentucky Derby with Aristides. Two horses, Oakland and Periwinkle, represented August Belmont, and Auden Bowie additionally ran Catesby. Survivor entered Pimlico as a two-year-old with no win in 1873, making his first begin of the brand new season within the Preakness Stakes. With future Corridor of Famer George Barbee within the saddle, he simply gained by 10 lengths over Catesby.
Pimlico and the Preakness flourished beneath Bowie’s management till competitors from different regional racetracks similar to Monmouth and Brighton Seashore made it harder to draw horses to the Baltimore space. The Maryland Jockey Membership relinquished its lease at Pimlico after simply over a decade, returning to the observe in 1905, ten years after Bowie’s dying in 1894. The race, generally known as the Preakness Stakes, was first run at Morris Park in 1890 after which at Gravesend, New York from 1894 to 1908. In 1909, the Preakness once more turned a part of Pimlico’s racing schedule and has remained there ever since.
As soon as on the point of closure, a century and a half after Auden Bowie’s imaginative and prescient gave the game one in every of its most well-known racetracks and its signature race, the Preakness Stakes, the crown jewel of the Triple Crown, a brand new Pimlico will quickly welcome horse racing followers.
