Winning The Race
In 1917, the first Woodlawn Vase was awarded to the Preakness winner, who was not allowed to keep it. Eventually a half-size reproduction of the trophy was given to winners to keep permanently. The original trophy is kept at the Baltimore Museum of Art and brought to the race each year under guard, for the winner's presentation ceremony.
In 1940, it was proposed to drape the winning horse in a garland of black-eyed Susans, the state flower of Maryland. This posed a problem, as the race is run nearly two months before the flowers come into bloom in late June or July. At first, yellow daisies were painted to resemble black-eyed Susans; workers switched to chrysanthemums later. Although the Preakness is sometimes referred to as "the race for the black-eyed Susans", no black-eyed Susan is ever used.
In 1918, 26 horses entered the race, and it was run in two divisions, providing for two winners that year. Currently, the race is limited to 14 horses.
In 1948, the Preakness was televised for the first time by CBS.
The Preakness has been run at seven different distances:
- 1½ miles (2.41 km) : 1873–1888, 1890
- 1¼ miles (2.01 km) : 1889
- 1-1/16 miles (1.71 km) : 1894–1900, 1908
- 1 mile 70 yards (1.67 km) : 1901–1907
- 1 mile (1.61 km) : 1909, 1910
- 1⅛ miles (1.81 km) : 1911–1924
- 1-3/16 miles (1.91 km) : 1925–present
Read more about this topic: Preakness Stakes
Famous quotes containing the words winning the, winning and/or race:
“... the most extreme conditions require the most extreme response, and for some individuals, the call to that response is vitality itself.... The integrity and self-esteem gained from winning the battle against extremity are the richest treasures in my life.”
—Diana Nyad (b. 1949)
“I don’t go that fast in practice, because I need the excitement of the race, the adrenalin. The others might train more and be in better shape, but when I’m racing, I put winning before everything else. I don’t stop until the world gets gray and fuzzy around the edges.”
—Candi Clark (b. c. 1950)
“The Jew is neither a newcomer nor an alien in this country or on this continent; his Americanism is as original and ancient as that of any race or people with the exception of the American Indian and other aborigines. He came in the caravels of Columbus, and he knocked at the gates of New Amsterdam only thirty-five years after the Pilgrim Fathers stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock.”
—Oscar Solomon Straus (1850–1926)