Ben Holladay's owner was a racing and breeding partnership created in 1886 between Montana banker and financier Samuel E. Larabie and Augustus Eastin, a wealthy Kentucky businessman.
[3] Following his 1899 season, the Wellington New Zealand Mail newspaper, reporting on racing in the United States, wrote that "Ben Holladay has proved himself this year to be by far the best long-distance horse in America" and quoting a front-page story in New York City's Spirit of the Times said that he is described as "the greatest Cup horse of the decade.
[5][6][7] On June 11, 1908, the Republican-controlled New York Legislature under Governor Charles Evans Hughes passed the Hart–Agnew anti-betting legislation with penalties allowing for fines and up to a year in prison.
[8] In spite of strong opposition by prominent owners such as August Belmont, Jr. and Harry Payne Whitney, reform legislators were not happy when they learned that betting was still going on at racetracks between individuals and they had further restrictive legislation passed by the New York Legislature in 1910 [9] that made it possible for racetrack owners and members of its board of directors to be fined and imprisoned if anyone was found betting, even privately, anywhere on their premises.
After a 1911 amendment to the law to limit the liability of owners and directors was defeated,[10] every racetrack in New York State shut down.