An ungraded stakes open to horses age three and older, it is raced on turf over a distance of five and one-half furlongs.
The inaugural running took place on October 23, 1988 and was won by Daniel Wildenstein's outstanding runner, Steinlen.
[2] Once described as "probably the richest and most powerful art dealer on earth",[3] Wildenstein named the horse for the French Art Nouveau painter Théophile Steinlen.
Inclement weather caused track officials to be concerned about the safety of the turf course in 1997 and 2011 resulting in those races being switched to the dirt track.
He is the only horse to have won the Laurel Dash twice and it is a noteworthy success in that one was on dirt and the other on grass.