Omnium Handicap

New to racing in New York, a relatively unknown western-based horse named Joquita won the inaugural running. Lightly regarded by the betting public, Joquita was sent off at odds of 20–1. However, once those odds were telegraphed across the country, a group of western people each quietly put down what the Daily Racing Form called an "enormous sum of money" with bookmakers. The Joquita "killing" would be talked about for years to come.{{cite web|url=https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1900s/drf1907091301/drf1907091301_4_2 |title=Condensed History of the Omnium Handicap |work=Daily Racing Form|via=University of Kentucky Archives|date=1907-09-13|access-date=2019-01-22}}

The final running of the Omnium was won by King James, owned and trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Sam Hildreth.{{cite web|url=https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1900s/drf1909091501/drf1909091501_2_2 |title=Sheepshead Bay Racing Statistics |work=Daily Racing Form|via=University of Kentucky Archives|date=1909-09-15 |access-date=2019-01-24}} King James's performance for the year would earn him recognition as the American Champion Handicap Horse of 1909.

In 1903 His Eminence, winner of the 1901 Kentucky Derby,{{cite web|url=https://www.kentuckyderby.com/uploads/wysiwyg/files/2016/02/u10/DERBY_CHARTS_1885-1918.pdf |title=Kentucky Derby charts 1875–2007 |work=Daily Racing Form|via=University of Kentucky Archives|date=2008-01-01 |access-date=2019-01-25}} set a new Sheepshead Bay track record as did Firestone in winning the 1908 Omnium Handicap.{{cite web|url=https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1900s/drf1908090801/drf1908090801_1_2 |title=Lively At Sheepshead Bay: Fine Stake Racing. Big Attendance And Much Bidding Features Of The Day.; Firestone Takes the Omnium Handicap in Track Record Time |work=Daily Racing Form|via=University of Kentucky Archives|date=1908-09-08 |access-date=2019-01-05}}

After years of uncertainty, on June 11, 1908, the Republican controlled New York Legislature under Governor Charles Evans Hughes passed the Hart–Agnew anti-betting legislation with penalties allowing for fines and up to a year in prison.{{cite web |url=https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1900s/drf1908511851/drf1908511851_1_7 |title=Penalties in the New York Bills |work=Daily Racing Form|via=University of Kentucky Archives|date=1908-01-18 |access-date=2018-10-26 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} 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 news|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 |access-date=2018-11-06}} Racetrack operators had no choice but to drastically reduce the purse money being paid out which resulted in the Omnium Handicap offering a purse in 1909 that was one-third of what it had been in earlier years. These small purses made horse racing highly unprofitable and impossible for even the most successful horse owners to continue in business. As such, for the 1910 racing season management of the Sheepshead Bay facility dropped some of its less important stakes races and used the purse money to bolster its most important events. The effect was to place the Omnium Handicap on hiatus.{{cite web|url=https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1910s/drf1910071601/drf1910071601_1_7 |title=Striking Falling off in Value of Ten Greatest Stakes |work=Daily Racing Form|via=University of Kentucky Archives|date= 1910-07-16 |access-date=2018-10-15}} Further restrictive legislation was passed by the New York Legislature in 1910 which deepened the financial crisis for track operators and after a 1911 amendment to the law to limit the liability of owners and directors was defeated every racetrack in New York State shut down.{{cite news|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|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=Thoroughbred Times|date=February 14, 2000|website=www.ThoroughbredTimes.com|access-date=September 2, 2017}} When a February 21, 1913 ruling by the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division Court saw horse racing return in 1913 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|access-date=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|access-date=2018-11-30}}

Speed record:

• 1:51 2/5 Firestone (1908) NTR

Most wins:

• 2 – Proper (1905, 1906)

Most wins by a jockey:

• 2 – Willie Simms (1895, 1897)
• 2 – Willie Shaw (1899, 1902)

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Category:Discontinued horse races in New York City

Category:Open mile category horse races

Category:Recurring sporting events established in 1885

Category:Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1909

Category:Sheepshead Bay Race Track

Category:1885 establishments in New York (state)

Category:1909 disestablishments in New York (state)