The Wise Dan Stakes is a Grade II American thoroughbred horse race for horses four-year-old and older run at a distance of one and one sixteenth of a mile on the turf held annually in June at Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky.
The event was inaugurated on 4 July 1983 as the Firecracker Handicap over a distance of 7 furlongs on a sloppy dirt track and was won by Shot n' Missed who defeated the odds on favorite Dave's Friend in a five horse field.
[1] In the third running in 1985 the winner Rapid Gray set a new track record for the distance in a time of 1:211⁄5.
[2] The event was discontinued for seven years and when it was revived in 1993 it was held on the turf course over a distance of one mile.
[6] In 2023 the event was moved to Ellis Park after Churchill Downs closed their spring meeting earlier due to a spate of injuries.