It was first run in 1936 as the East Coast counterpart to the Santa Anita Handicap in California.
The magnificence of the Hialeah Park facilities drew the rich and famous to the track and a purse of $50,000 quickly made the Widener Handicap one of the major events of the winter racing season, drawing many of the country's top horses.
The March 16, 1942 issue of TIME magazine said: "nearly every glamor horse in the U.S. was entered in Florida's Widener Handicap, richest race of the winter season.
At the end of that year, financial difficulties spelled the demise of Hialeah Park and with it the Widener Handicap.
When Mary Russ won the 1982 Widener Handicap it marked the first time in the history of North American Thoroughbred racing that a female jockey won a Grade I event.