[2] Sanford owned wool and cotton mills and made a fortune manufacturing blankets for the Union Army during the American Civil War.
In 1883 he built the Sanford Textile Mill in Medway which still stands to this day as a condominium property.
It was agreed that the race be held in the fall of 1870 and be open to three-year-old colts and fillies at a distance of two miles (3 km).
As a result, Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore was built and on October 25, 1870, a horse named Preakness owned by Milton Sanford won the inaugural Dinner Party Stakes.
In 1881, the 68-year-old Milton Sanford sold Preakness Stud in Kentucky to Daniel Swigert, who renamed it Elmendorf Farm.