It was raced in its first year as the "Suburban Renewal Handicap" having been created as a sequel to Suburban Handicap, the most important race in New York at the time for horses aged three and older.
[3] Waterboy won the 1903 inaugural edition and would go on to retrospectively be named that year's American Champion Older Male Horse.
[4] The 1906 winner Sir Huon came into the Commonwealth Handicap as the victor in the May 2 Kentucky Derby.
[7] In winning the 1910 and last running of the Commonwealth Handicap, Richard Wilson Jr.'s speedy Olambala equaled the American record for a mile and one-quarter set by Broomstick six years earlier.
[10][11] When a February 21, 1913 ruling by the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division saw horse racing return it was too late for the Sheepshead Bay horse racing facility and it never reopened.