Garden and Meadow Days Gone By

It is almost time to start preparing for the 2026 Derby trail, but we still have two important juvenile stakes coming up in late November and early December that will give us a better idea just how this crop of 2-year-olds stacks up. However, before we get to those races, let us go back to a November race that no longer exists, but once was not only often decided the juvenile champion, but was the richest race in America. That is the now defunct Garden State Stakes, whose last two winners before being discontinued were none other than Riva Ridge and Secretariat, a fitting pair to conclude the race’s rich history. ~ Steve Haskin

Garden and Meadow Days Gone By

By Steve Haskin

 

A half century ago, November horse racing in the United States was alive with exciting races that gave fans one final look at many of the following year’s Derby horses, as well as showcasing some of the greatest grass horses from all over the world. The Washington D.C. International was the turf race back then, a race that was so prestigious it attracted champion dirt horses such as Kelso, Damascus, Carry Back, Tom Rolfe, Gun Bow, and Riva Ridge.

And in the 2-year-old colt division we had the Remsen Stakes, then at one mile, at Aqueduct, and the rich Garden State Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Garden State Park, one of the premier tracks in the country. Located just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, it put the newly named Cherry Hill, New Jersey on the map with the additions of hotels, a shopping mall, and the relocated (from nearby Philadelphia) Latin Casino that attracted the likes of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

In 1944, Garden State inaugurated the Garden State Futurity, later to be named the Garden State Stakes, but other than its 1948 winner Blue Peter being named champion 2-year-old, it made little impact until 1953 when it became the richest race in the world with a purse of $300,000. For a time, it was surpassed by the Arlington-Washington Futurity at Arlington Park, but while the Arlington Futurity purse eventually shrunk considerably, the Garden State Stakes maintained its huge purse.

In 1953 the Garden State was won by Turn-to, owned by Captain Harry Guggenheim’s Cain Hoy Stable. Although Turn-to’s career was cut short, with eight wins in only 10 starts, he had a major effect on the breeding industry, siring Hail to Reason, Sir Gaylord and other influential stallions. Turn-to would begin a chain reaction of Garden State Stakes winners that eventually would help establish Meadow Stable as one of the leading racing and breeding operations in the country.

First Landing – In 1958, the $297,250 Garden State was won by Meadow Stable owner Christopher T. Chenery’s First Landing, a son of Turn-to who not only became the second 2-year-old champion to capture the race, while completing the first victorious father and son duo, he also became the biggest money-winning juvenile of all time with earnings of $396,460. Having won eight of his first 10 starts, with two seconds, First Landing was sent off as the 3-2 favorite in the 13-horse field. Taken back to sixth by jockey Eddie Arcaro over a sloppy track, he moved up steadily and was all-out to just get up at the wire to nail Tomy Lee by a head.

The 1958 running wound up making a huge impact the sport. In the beaten field were the one-two finishers of the 1959 Kentucky Derby — Tomy Lee and Sword Dancer — with First Landing finishing third to give the Garden State Stakes a clean sweep of the Derby. Sword Dancer, who was beaten a nose in the Derby, would go on to be voted champion 3-year-old colt, champion handicap horse, and Horse of the Year in 1959 and be elected to the Hall of Fame. At stud, he sired one of racing’s all-time greats in Damascus.

Also in that Garden State field was eventual Sprint Champion Intentionally, who was purchased as a 5-year-old for a reported $800,000 by trainer John Nerud for Tartan Stable and became one of Tartan’s foundation stallions, siring the two-time champion sprinter Ta Wee, a half sister to the immortal Dr. Fager. On Nerud’s recommendation, his longtime friend Mrs. Frances Genter, bred her mare My Dear Girl to Intentionally and got In Reality, a top-class racehorse and major impact on the breed.

Riva Ridge – It took another 13 years for the Turn-to cycle to continue and a new Meadow Stable cycle to begin. In 1971, First Landing’s son Riva Ridge won the most anticipated Garden State Stakes ever run, one which would crown the best 2-year-old in the country of either sex, with Ogden Phipps’ filly phenom Numbered Account taking on the boys. The daughter of the great Buckpasser had swept through the 2-year-old filly division with, except for one defeat, complete domination with victories in the Fashion, Schuylerville, Spinaway by 2 1/2 lengths, Matron by 6 1/2 lengths, Frizette by seven lengths, Selima by six lengths, and Gardenia Stakes by almost three lengths.

Here she was coming back only one week after crushing her foes in the Gardenia, the fillies equivalent of the Garden State, to take on the brilliant Riva Ridge, winner of the Flash Stakes, Belmont Futurity, Champagne by seven lengths, and the Pimlico-Laurel Futurity by 11 lengths. Also in the field was the rapidly improving Key to the Mint, beaten a nose in the Cowdin Stakes, disqualified from first in the Garden State prep, and coming off a sharp seven-furlong allowance victory at Aqueduct with the addition of blinkers a week before the Garden State. There was also the late-running Freetex, winner of the Heritage and Kindergarten Stakes at Keystone Racetrack.

But all eyes were on Riva Ridge and and Numbered Account. What made it even more compelling was that Numbered Account’s trainer Roger Laurin was the former trainer of Meadow Stable and had a promising unraced 2-year-old named Riva Ridge in his barn. But right after shipping the colt to New York in May, 1971 to prepare for his career debut on June 9, he resigned to take the dream job of trainer for the powerful Ogden Phipps stable, which had a promising filly named Numbered Account, who had already won her first two starts in brilliant fashion, including the Fashion Stakes at Aqueduct.

Laurin recommended his father Lucien, longtime trainer for Claiborne Farm who was considering retirement at the time, to replace him at Meadow Stable. Lucien was hired by Penny Tweedy, whose father Christopher Chenery was ailing at the time. And so it was that you had not only a rare colt vs, filly showdown for 2-year-old supremacy, but a father and son matchup as well, with the younger Laurin now facing the colt he gave up.

The last time a clash between a 2-year-old colt and filly in a major race occurred was in the 1965 Futurity Stakes at Aqueduct when the speedy filly Priceless Gem upset future Hall of Famer Buckpasser, who was owned by Ogden Phipps and was the sire of Numbered Account. So the irony surrounding this showdown just added to the intrigue of the race.

The $293,890 Garden State Stakes no doubt was going to be one of the highlights of the year, and there was so much interest in the race, Garden State arranged for a special bus to leave the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City the morning of the race to take fans to Garden State Racetrack and bring them back following the race. The bus was packed and once fans arrived at the track they were given a choice of buttons to wear that read “I Like the King in the Garden State” or “I Like the Queen in the Garden State.”

With more than 32,000 fans in attendance, it was Riva Ridge, the even-money favorite, who asserted his superiority by drawing off to a 2 1/2-length victory over longshot Freetex, with Key to the Mint finishing third. Numbered Account’s grueling campaign finally caught up with her and she ran evenly throughout as the 2-1 second choice to finish fourth, beaten 4 1/2 lengths.

To demonstrate the impact of this race, Riva Ridge, who had come along when a struggling Meadow Stable and its ailing owner desperately needed a star, went on to win the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes en route to a Hall of Fame career. Freetex would score major victories at 3 in the Monmouth Invitational Handicap, Gotham, and Ohio Derby, and Key to the Mint would snatch the 3-year-old championship from Riva Ridge by winning the Travers Stakes and defeating older horses in the Brooklyn Handicap, Whitney, and Woodward, where he easily beat Riva Ridge to nail down the title. Both horses would go to win a number of major stakes at 4, with Riva Ridge taking home championship honors.

As for Numbered Account, she was a solid 3-year-old, winning the Prioress and Test Stakes, and defeated older fillies and mares in the Matchmaker and Spinster. Like Riva Ridge, she was retired to Claiborne Farm, where she produced Grade 1 winner Dance Number and two-time Grade 1 winner Private Account, the sire of the great undefeated filly Personal Ensign.

Secretariat – Little could anyone have envisioned then that the Garden State Stakes, which had produced no less than 11 2-year-old champions, would live on for only one more year. But what a way to go out.

In 1972, now with a purse of $298,665, the final ever Garden State Stakes for 2-year-olds would be won by the legendary Secretariat, giving Meadow Stable back-to-back winners in America’s richest race, and three victories overall. Big Red, as he became known, had no trouble defeating his stablemate Angle Light by 3 1/2 lengths in hand, with Step Nicely a half-length back in third. The Turcotte family connection was most obvious in the race with Secretariat’s jockey Ron Turcotte winning over his brother Rudy, who was aboard Angle Light.

This race not only nailed down the 2-year-old championship for Secretariat, which was his even before the race, it enabled the son of Bold Ruler to be voted Horse of the Year in the newly formed Eclipse Awards, beating out future Hall of Famers Riva Ridge, Cougar II, and Susan’s Girl, as well as 3-Year-Old champion Key to the Mint. Since the Morning Telegraph and its sister publication the Daily Racing Form created the Horse of the Year Award in 1936, this was the first time it went to a 2-year-old.

The 1972 Garden State also proved to be a portent of shocking upsets to come. As we all know, runner-up Angle Light would go on to upset Secretariat in the Wood Memorial, much to the displeasure of Penny Tweedy and Claiborne Farm, who had syndicated the colt for a record $6,080,000 following his 2-year-old campaign. In addition, third-place finisher Step Nicely, a former claimer, would knock off Forego and Linda’s Chief in the Jerome Handicap, and his trainer Allen Jerkens would pull of the greatest double-barrel upset of all time time, beating the then Triple Crown winner Secretariat in the Whitney Stakes with Onion and the Woodward Stakes with Prove Out, both allowance horses.

The Garden State Stakes was now at its zenith, producing a Horse of the Year, back-to-back juvenile champions, and having pitted the champion colt and filly against each other. To put its overall importance in proper perspective, the purse of the race was nearly double the purse of the Kentucky Derby. And in their three victories with First Landing, Riva Ridge, and Secretariat, Meadow Stable took home a total of $533,883, In comparison, in 1973 they took home a total of $375,070 for Secretariat’s Triple Crown sweep.

But in 1973, in an effort to increase tax revenue, the State of New Jersey decided to award Garden State with an extended winter/spring meet and eliminate its fall meet, ending the Garden State Stakes and Gardenia as we knew it. Following a fire in 1977 that destroyed the grandstand, Garden State Racetrack was purchased by Robert Brennan’s International Thoroughbred Breeders Association in 1981.

A new glitzy grandstand was built and when the track reopened in 1985, the Garden State Stakes was now a 3-year-old race and prep for the Kentucky Derby. It made an initial splash that first year when Brennan offered a $2 million bonus to any horse who swept the Cherry Hill Mile, Garden State Stakes, Kentucky Derby, and Preakness. Spend A Buck went on to win all four races, bypassing the Preakness to complete the bonus, and forcing the three Triple Crown tracks to unite and form Triple Crown Productions, a single company that focused on marketing the three races, beginning by instituting its own bonus.

In 1999, after 14 years of producing few notable winners, the Garden State Stakes, once the most lucrative race in the country and one of racing’s most esteemed events was gone for good, as was Garden State Racetrack two years later.

As for Meadow Stable, the race’s only three-time winning owner, the Garden State Stakes will forever be known as the final launching pad for the Hall of Fame careers of Riva Ridge and Secretariat, who would win five of their six Triple Crown races, with Big Red still being the standard of greatness after more than 50 years.

 

Photos courtesy of Garden State Park, New York Racing Association and Secretariat.com.

Racing historian, author, and award-winning retired journalist for the Daily Racing Form and The Blood-Horse, Steve Haskin was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame’s Media Roll of Honor in 2016. Known for his racing knowledge and insightful prose, he has been an exclusive contributor to Secretariat.com since 2020.