The Gardenia Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race run at Garden State Park Racetrack near Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
[1] The inaugural running of the Gardenia Stakes took on a muddy track place on October 15, 1955 and was won by Nasrina who would be recognized as that year's American Co-Champion Two-Year-Old Filly.
[2] The substantial purse, as well as the Gardenia's place on the American racing calendar late in the year, would see the event won by fillies that would be voted National Champion honors for thirteen of its first eighteen runnings from 1955 thru 1972.
Until 1970 there were three different racing organizations picking an annual National Champion and only two Gardenia winners prior to 1971, Castle Forbes in 1963 and Gallant Bloom in 1968, were not unanimous choices.
[3] Gardenia winner Numbered Account, owned by Ogden Phipps and trained by Roger Laurin was the first Eclipse Award recipient in the two-year-old filly category.