William Woodward Sr. (April 7, 1876 – September 25, 1953)[1] was an American banker and major owner and breeder in thoroughbred horse racing.

[5] His uncle, James T. Woodward, was one of the chief financiers who acquired the rights for the Panama Canal from France for the United States.

[3] For the next two years Woodward lived in London where he served as secretary to the United States Ambassador to Britain, Joseph Hodges Choate.

Belair is a very historic estate where Colonial Governor of Maryland Samuel Ogle had brought the first Thoroughbred horses imported to America from England in 1747.

[12] Upon inheriting the property, Woodward built the Belair Stud into one of the dominant breeding and thoroughbred horse racing operations in the United States during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.

Around 1910, they purchased The Cloisters on Ochre Point in Newport, Rhode Island, the former estate of Catherine Lorillard Kernochan, which had been designed by architect J.D.

[42] He left the estate to his son, William Woodward Jr., whose untimely death two years later in 1955 saw the end of Belair Stud.

The Woodward Stakes, a Grade II event now run at Aqueduct, during the Belmont at The Big A meet, is named in his honor.