The following year saw five animals go to the starting gate, and the winner was Culpepper at eight to one, with no mention of the favorite, who may have been a horse named Flower Girl who broke away from the gate and jumped the fence and hasn’t been heard from since…In this race, August Belmont entered a pair, who finished second and third, behind Culpepper. Incidentally, the horse which finished fourth was not identified but appears as B.C. with no name at all.

By the third renewal of the stake, someone apparently thought it would be a good idea to include the names of the jockeys, and this was done after much deliberation. As if to compensate for the clarification, the odds on the winning horse, Tom Ochiltree, were left out but a last note in the chart tells us that the favorite in the betting was Bay Final. He wound up out of the money.

One of the longest winning streaks in racing history started in the sixth running when George Lorillard took the three-horse event with Duke of Magenta in 1878. A jockey named Halloway was casually mentioned as the rider and the odds were two to five, but not actually included in the body of the chart. The following year George Lorillard sent out Harold to win the seventh renewal at odds of one to six, but this time no jockeys were listed except the winning reinsman, L. Hughes.

Lorillard as owner appeared in the winners circle for three more victories…with Grenada, Saunterer and Vanguard. The last-named scored in 1882 and by that time the charts included the names of all the riders involved but not the odds on each horse. All Five winners were owned by Lorillard and were trained by R.W. Walden. I’ve seen this unusual feat recorded in racing before when Woody Stephens won his quintet of Belmont Stakes however, Stephens five consecutive classic wins were not owned by the same owner.

The Preakness Stakes has never been a model of consistency even in the matter of distance. There have been constant changes from the original marathon of a mile and a half from its inception in 1873. By 1894 it was changed to a mile and a quarter. After that they experimented with a mile, a mile and a sixteenth, a mile and seventy yards and a mile and an eighth until finally in 1891 they stopped racing altogether.

They tried everything including the conditions which were carded for three-year-olds and upwards. Four mediocrities showed up and the weights were ridiculous: the winner, Montague, carried 103 pounds and the top-weight was Philosophy packing 105. Why this race was ever carded and actually presented on Preakness Day nobody seemed to understand, and the purse was certainly no magnet…$1185. The winner was five years old.

There’s more incredible history attached to this event: it was run in New York at the old Morris Park. No wonder they stopped racing for three years, but by 1894 they decided to try Gravesend in Coney Island. This location lasted until 1908, and by this time the reformers had just about closed all Eastern tracks and sent most big stables to England.

The public at Gravesend was treated to top notch jockeys even though the caliber of Thoroughbreds left much to be desired. On exhibit were such star saddlesmiths as Willie Simms the black sensation, Winnie O’Connor, Spencer, Fred Taral, Nash Turner, Arthur Redfern and even the great Tod Sloan rode in those long-forgotten Preaknesses.

Although Hall-of-Famers like Walter Miller, Joe Notter, George Odom and Willie Knapp were on tap to ride, the Thoroughbreds were an undistinguished lot, but a good time was had by all.