A race for horses of either sex age three and older, it was run on dirt over a distance of a mile and one-eighth.
[1] New to racing in New York, a relatively unknown western-based horse named Joquita won the inaugural running.
However, once those odds were telegraphed across the country, a group of western people each quietly put down what the Daily Racing Form called an "enormous sum of money" with bookmakers.
In 1903 His Eminence, winner of the 1901 Kentucky Derby,[4] set a new Sheepshead Bay track record as did Firestone in winning the 1908 Omnium Handicap.
Thoroughbred Times reported that more than 1,500 American horses were sent overseas between 1908 and 1913 and of them at least 24 were either past, present, or future Champions.