It is run over a distance of one and three-eighth miles on turf and is scheduled annually for early May at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.
[1] The inaugural running of the event was on 24 October 1959 at the newly reopened Aqueduct Racetrack as the Man o' War Handicap over a distance of 1+1⁄2 miles.
[3] The event attracted some of the finest long distance turf horses including British bred Tudor Era who was first past the post in the 1958 Washington D.C. International at Laurel but was disqualified.
Tudor Era would win the Second Division of the event as the favorite defeating Marlow Road by 3 lengths with Anisado in third place in a time of 2:41 flat.
The 1962 renewal of the event as the Man o' War Stakes at Belmont Park was run with Weight for Age conditions.
The winner, 20-1 longshot Beau Purple who set a track record of 2:28.60 for the 1+1⁄2 miles in defeating a group of highly talented entrants, including 1961 U.S.
[11] The scheduling of the Man o' War Stakes would be affected in that NYRA would try and space out the time between the dates that the events were held in the fall.
In 1979 Bowl Game was able complete the treble in capturing the Man o' War Stakes, Turf Classic and Washington D.C. International.
[12] Solar Splendor would repeat winning the event the following year on the main turf track this time setting a new course record of 2:12.45.
[15] In 2017 the event was won by the five-year-old Irish bred mare Zhukova who started as the 9/10 odds-on favorite and set a new stakes winning margin by 6 lengths over Taghleeb in a small field of five starters in a time of 2:25.31 on a yielding track in rainy weather.
In 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, NYRA did not schedule the event in their updated and shortened spring-summer meeting.
[18] Also the event was moved to Aqueduct Racetrack due to infield tunnel and redevelopment work at Belmont Park.