When the gates fly open every Might at Pimlico Race Course, racing followers have a good time extra than simply the Preakness Stakes — they honor a legacy rooted within the imaginative and prescient of 1 man: Oden Bowie. As governor and a sportsman, Bowie acknowledged the potential for Maryland to develop into a nationwide chief in Thoroughbred racing. His dedication to construct a premier racing venue led to the creation of Pimlico Race Course in 1870, a monitor that might quickly host one in every of America’s most prestigious races. The inaugural operating of the Preakness Stakes in 1873 would solidify the state’s place on the coronary heart of the game, a convention that continues greater than 150 years later.
Bowie’s legacy is woven into the wealthy material of Maryland’s racing heritage. From his daring ambitions for Pimlico to his creation of traditional races just like the Preakness, his story is one in every of imaginative and prescient, perseverance, and the timeless attract of thundering hooves on the third Saturday in Might.
Planter and Politician
Like many gents of his period, Oden Bowie beloved horses and racing. His household’s assets made his sporting life potential: the oldest son of William Duckett Bowie and Eliza Mary Oden, Bowie inherited his household’s Fairview Plantation close to Collington Md. He was educated first by a non-public tutor at Fairview earlier than attending St. John’s Faculty in Annapolis after his mom’s dying after which happening to St. Mary’s Seminary and College, graduating in 1845.
After finishing his training, Bowie enlisted within the Military and served in the course of the Mexican-American Battle, rising to the rank of Captain by struggle’s finish. He then returned residence to Maryland and adopted within the footsteps of his father and his uncle Robert Bowie and turned to politics. Oden gained a seat within the state’s Home of Delegates, serving from 1849-1867, after which within the Maryland Senate earlier than operating for governor, an workplace his uncle had held twice. Oden Bowie turned the state’s first post-Civil Battle governor in 1869 and retired from politics when his time period led to 1872.
Along with Fairview Plantation, the Bowie household additionally constructed the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, which helped join southern Maryland to different areas of the Mid-Atlantic, permitting the area to see extra business improvement. This wealth allowed Bowie to spend his post-political life investing in breeding and racing Thoroughbreds. Horses like Crickmore, Oriole, and Dickens competed within the Bowie crimson and white striped silks, and William Woodward, who would breed and personal Triple Crown winners Gallant Fox and Omaha, sought out Fairview bloodstock after Bowie’s passing in 1894.
Oden Bowie’s most necessary contribution to the game began not in Maryland, however in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., the place a celebration impressed a traditional.
Sportsman and Visionary
Earlier than he took workplace as governor of Maryland, Bowie went north to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., to absorb the races on the nascent Saratoga Race Course. The world had been a racing hub lengthy earlier than the brand new monitor opened in 1863, however this new facility, with names like John Morrissey, William Travers, and Leonard Jerome behind it, made Saratoga an annual vacation spot for high stables. Throughout Bowie’s 1868 go to, his pal Milton Sanford gained the 2¼-mile Saratoga Cup with Lancaster after which the proprietor parlayed his thrill on the victory into a celebration on the Union Corridor Resort. Bowie was among the many celebrants, and historical past appears to indicate that this was fairly the hullabaloo.
Financier John Hunter referred to as for the night to be commemorated with a stakes race. Bowie chimed in, suggesting that such a contest must be in Maryland and that he would construct a brand new racetrack close to Baltimore for the event. A number of house owners in attendance, together with Sanford, pledged to enter the Dinner Occasion Stakes, tentatively scheduled for 2 years later. When Bowie returned residence, he began the method of constructing a brand new racetrack close to Baltimore.
The Maryland Jockey Membership was based in 1743 and survived in varied kinds by the Revolutionary Battle and into the 19th century, holding irregular conferences in Annapolis earlier than shifting to Baltimore. They operated on the Central Course close to town on Frederick Pike however determined to shift to Bowie’s proposed racetrack. The MJC bought 70 acres close to Jones Falls for $23,500 after which constructed Pimlico Race Course, named for that space surrounding the brand new facility, for $25,000. Bowie’s new racetrack, the one promised two years earlier on the Union Corridor Resort, opened on Oct. 25, 1870, with a four-race card. The third race was the eagerly anticipated Dinner Occasion Stakes.
For a handbag of $19,000, seven horses went to the put up, representing house owners like August Belmont, Milton Sanford, and Bowie himself. Sanford’s brown colt Preakness, a son of Lexington, gained the two-mile stakes over Thomas Doswell’s Ecliptic, happening in historical past as the primary winner of the Dinner Occasion Stakes, which stays a part of Pimlico’s stakes program greater than 150 years later. Preakness went on to race for six extra seasons, retiring with a document of 18 wins, 12 seconds, and two thirds in 39 begins.
Three years after his win within the inaugural Dinner Occasion Stakes, the Maryland Jockey Membership added a brand new stakes race for 3-year-olds to its calendar, a 1 1/2-mile characteristic they named for Sanford’s horse. The primary Preakness Stakes was the second of 4 races on Might 27, 1873, seven horses assembly the starter for a $2,050 purse. H. Worth McGrath had Artist within the race, two years earlier than he would win the primary Kentucky Derby with Aristides. Two horses, Oakland and Periwinkle, represented August Belmont, whereas Oden Bowie had his Catesby in there as effectively. Survivor entered 1873 winless at age 2 and got here to Pimlico for his first begin of the brand new season within the new Preakness Stakes. With future Corridor of Famer George Barbee within the saddle, he gained simply, ending 10 lengths forward of Catesby.
Pimlico and the Preakness flourished below Bowie’s management till competitors from different regional racetracks, like Monmouth, Brighton Seashore, and extra, made it harder to draw horses to the Baltimore space. The Maryland Jockey Membership gave up its lease on Pimlico for just a little over a decade after which returned to the racetrack in 1905, a decade after Bowie’s dying in 1894. A race referred to as the Preakness Stakes was carded first at Morris Park in 1890 after which at Gravesend in New York from 1894 to 1908; in 1909, the Preakness was as soon as once more part of Pimlico’s racing schedule, the place it has remained ever since.
As soon as at risk of closing, quickly a brand new Pimlico will greet racing followers a century and a half after Oden Bowie’s imaginative and prescient gave the game one in every of its most well-known racetracks and its signature race, the center jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes. As we have a good time its 150th version, we predict again to a different get together the place a second of celebration impressed this nice racing custom.
