Golden Rod Stakes (Sheepshead Bay)

The 1891 inaugural was won by Lew Weir, owned and trained by Edward Corrigan, the Canadian-born founder and owner of Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney/Cicero, Illinois.{{cite web|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1924/07/05/archives/edward-corrigan-dies-at-age-of-82-master-of-hawthorne-once-powerful.html |title=Edward Corrigan Dies At Age 82 |work=New York Times |date=1924-07-05 |accessdate=2019-06-14}}

Henry of Navarre won the 1893 running and at age three and again at age four earned American Horse of the Year honors. He would be inducted into the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame in 1985.

Havoc won this race in 1894 for his owner and trainer David Boyle. In early 1897 Havoc was sold to Joseph E. Seagram, a major stable owner and breeder for whom David Boyle's father Charles was the trainer. Charles Boyle career would see him inducted into Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. For Seagram, Havoc became a very successful sire of four King's Plate winners including Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Famer Inferno.{{cite web|url= https://www.canadianhorseracinghalloffame.com/1976/12/09/inferno/ |title= Inferno – Hall of Fame Inductee |publisher= Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame |date=1976-01-01 |accessdate=2019-08-09}}

The 1896 Golden Rod Stakes winner was Julius Cahn's Typhoon II who went on to win the 1897 Kentucky Derby.{{cite web|url= https://www.kentuckyderby.com/history/year/1897 |title=Typhoon II |publisher=Churchill Downs Incorporated |date=2019-08-15 |accessdate=2019-08-15}}

In addition to winning the 1903 Golden Rod Stakes, Highball won that year's runnings of the Flatbush, Grand Union Hotel and Junior Champion Stakes. Highball's 1903 performances would earn him recognition as American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt.

On June 11, 1908, the Republican controlled New York Legislature under Governor Charles Evans Hughes passed the Hart–Agnew anti-betting legislation.{{cite web|url=https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1900s/drf1908011801/drf1908011801_1_7 |title=Penalties in the New York Bills |work=Daily Racing Form|via=University of Kentucky Archives|date=1908-01-18|accessdate=2018-10-26}} The owners of Sheepshead Bay Race Track, and other racing facilities in New York State, struggled to stay in business without income from betting.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1908/09/01/archives/keep-up-betting-ban-strict-enforcement-of-the-law-at-sheepshead-bay.html |title=Keep Up Betting Ban |work=New York Times |date=1908-09-01 |accessdate=2018-11-06}} Racetrack operators had no choice but to drastically reduce the purse money being paid out which resulted in the Golden Rod Stakes offering a purse in 1908 that was less than one-third of what it had been in earlier years. These small purses made horse racing unprofitable and impossible for even the most successful horse owners to continue in business. As such, for the 1909 racing season management of the Sheepshead Bay facility dropped some of its minor stakes races and some of those that had multiple editions for the same age and/or distance qualifications. That allowed the track to use the purse money to bolster its most important events.{{cite web|url=https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1900s/drf1908081101/drf1908081101_1_6 |title=Coney Island Clubs Sturdy Stand |work=Daily Racing Form|via=University of Kentucky Archives|date=1908-08-11 |accessdate=2019-02-03}} As a result, the Golden Rod Stakes was not run in 1909.

In spite of strong opposition by prominent owners such as August Belmont Jr. and Harry Payne Whitney, reform legislators were not happy when they learned that betting was still going on at racetracks between individuals and they had further restrictive legislation passed by the New York Legislature in 1910.{{cite web|url=https://therail.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/the-first-american-triple-crown-series/|title=The First American Triple Crown Series|first=Bennett|last=Liebman|date=May 24, 2009|website=The Rail|access-date=September 2, 2017}} The Agnew–Perkins Law, a series of four bills and recorded as the Executive Liability Act, made it possible for racetrack owners and members of its board of directors to be fined and imprisoned if anyone was found betting, even privately, anywhere on their premises.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1910/04/07/archives/racing-men-attack-antibetting-bills-place-every-man-who-makes.html |title=Racing Men Attack Anti-Betting Bills – Place Every Man Who Makes Private Wager in Jeopardy |work=New York Times |date=1910-04-07 |accessdate=2019-06-29}} After a 1911 amendment to the law that would limit the liability of owners and directors was defeated in the Legislature, every racetrack in New York State shut down.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1911/07/14/archives/race-track-bill-defeated-in-senate-measure-modifying-directors.html|title=Race Track Bill Defeated In Senate; Measure Modifying Directors' Liability for Gambling Fails of Passage.|work=The New York Times|date=July 14, 1911|publisher=|access-date=September 2, 2017}}

Owners, whose horses of racing age had nowhere to go, began sending them, their trainers and their jockeys to race in England and France. Many horses ended their racing careers there and a number remained to become an important part of the European horse breeding industry. Thoroughbred Times reported that more than 1,500 American horses were sent overseas between 1908 and 1913 and of them at least 24 were either past, present, or future Champions.{{cite web|url=http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/weekly-feature-articles/2000/February/14/Racing-Through-the-Century-1911-1920.aspx|title=Racing Through the Century|work=Thoroughbred Times|author=|date=February 14, 2000|access-date=September 2, 2017}} When a February 21, 1913 ruling by the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division saw horse racing return in 1913.{{cite web|url=https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1910s/drf1913022201/drf1913022201_1_9 |title= Oral Betting Held Legal: Appellate Division of New York Supreme Court Renders Important Decision |work=Daily Racing Form|via=University of Kentucky Archives|date=1913-02-22 |accessdate=2019-06-29}} However, it was too late for the Sheepshead Bay horse racing facility and it never reopened.{{cite web|url=https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1900s/drf1908121501/drf1908121501_1_7|title=Destruction Wrought by Hughes |work=Daily Racing Form|via=University of Kentucky Archives|date=1908-12-15|accessdate=2018-11-30}}{{cite web|url=https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1910s/drf1914111701/drf1914111701_1_2 |title=Famous Old Track is Sold |work=Daily Racing Form|via=University of Kentucky Archives|date=1914-11-17|accessdate=2018-11-30}}

Speed record:

• 1:19.80 @ 6.5 furlongs – Oiseau (1904)
• 1:28.00 @ 7 furlongs – One I Love (1895) & Typhoon (1896)

Most wins by a jockey:

• 2 – Samuel Doggett (1891, 1895)
• 2 – Winfield O'Connor (1899, 1902)

Most wins by a trainer:

• No trainer won this race more than once.

Most wins by an owner:

• No owner won this race more than once.

{{reflist}}

Category:Flat horse races for two-year-olds

Category:Turf races in the United States

Category:Open sprint category horse races

Category:Discontinued horse races in New York City

Category:Sheepshead Bay Race Track

Category:Horse races established in 1891

Category:Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1908

Category:1891 establishments in New York (state)

Category:1908 disestablishments in New York (state)