The inaugural running of the National Stallion race took place on May 14, 1898 at Morris Park Racecourse and was won by Jean Bereaud who would go on to win the next year's Belmont Stakes.
[2][3] In what would be the last year for racing at Morris Park Racecourse, in 1904 Tanya became the first filly to win the National Stallion Stakes during the time it was open to horses of either sex.
[4] It would be thirty-four years until another filly was victorious in the National Stallion Stakes when New York City restaurateur Henry Lustig's Donita M won the 1938 race.
[12][13] The 1908 passage of the Hart–Agnew anti-betting legislation by the New York Legislature under Republican Governor Charles Evans Hughes threatened the survival of horse racing in the state.
[15] The Agnew–Perkins Law, a series of four bills and recorded as the Executive Liability Act, 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.