The event was inaugurated on 31 July 1985, Opening Day of the Saratoga meeting for that year as the Daryl's Joy Stakes at a distance of 1+1⁄16 miles and was won by Roving Minstrel who was ridden by United States' Racing Hall of Fame jockey Ángel Cordero Jr. in a time of 1:452⁄5.
[1] The New Zealand-bred Daryl's Joy was a Two Year Champion in 1968 there, and after a successful spring campaign in Australia in 1969 winning the W. S. Cox Plate and Victoria Derby the colt was sold to the US where he won six races in eleven starts for United States' Racing Hall of Fame trainer Charles E.
Fourstardave died of a heart attack in October 2002 at the age of 17 and is buried in Clare Court at Saratoga Race Course.
[3] In 2002 the grade of the event was lowered due to the change of surface as designated by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.
The last horse to win the event and the Breeders' Cup Mile was the champion World Approval in 2017.