The Pimlico Cup Handicap was an American horse race for Thoroughbreds run between 1919 and 1961 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.[1][2] A long-distance race on dirt for stayers age three an older, twenty-three of its twenty-five runnings were run at more than two miles.

Pimlico Cup
Discontinued stakes race
LocationPimlico Race Course, Baltimore, Maryland
Inaugurated1919
Race typeThoroughbred - Flat racing
Race information
SurfaceDirt
Trackleft-handed
QualificationThree years old & up

Historical notes

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Future U. S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Exterminator won the first three runnings of the Pimlico Cup beginning with the inaugural edition on November 13, 1919.[3]

The race of November 15, 1924, won by Altawood, was run in a snowstorm so heavy at times that the horses were barely visible and the colors undistinguishable.[4]

The Pimlico Cup was not run from 1931 through 1943 as a result of cutbacks necessitated by the Great Depression. Restarting was delayed further by the December 1941 entry of the United States into World War II. On its return in 1944, Megogo set a new track record for 2+12 miles with a time of 4:20 1/5.

In 1947 the filly Miss Grillo, trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Horatio Luro and owned by the Mill River Stable of Josephine Douglas, won the 2+12 mile Pimlico Cup by forty lengths. Nearing the finish, Jockey Conn McCreary eased Miss Grillo then stood up in the stirrups and waved to the crowd.[5] The next year Miss Grillo won the race again for Josephine Douglas. Her winning time of 4:14 3/5 broke the world record for 2+12 miles by two seconds, a record which had stood for twenty-six years.[6]

Pilaster won the November 12, 1949, edition of the Pimlico Cup running temporarily under the name of trainer Frank Bonsal because owner Henry Lobe Straus had died in an October 25 airplane crash.[7]

Wise Margin's time of 3:37 flat in his 1956 win broke the track record for two miles and a sixteenth.[8] Four years later Beau Diable broke Wise Margin's record when winning the 1960 Pimlico Cup in 3:35 3/5.[9]

The final running of the Pimlico Cup took place on December 9, 1961, on a racetrack covered with snow. It was won by Sunshine Cake owned by Bayard Sharp, a founding director of Delaware Park Racetrack and a former president of The Blood-Horse Inc.[10][11]

Records

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Speed record:

Most wins:

Most wins by a jockey:

Most wins by a trainer:

Most wins by an owner:

Winners

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Year
Winner
Age
Jockey
Trainer
Owner
Dist.
(Miles)
Time
Win$
1961 Sunshine Cake 3 Tommy Lee Charles Peoples Bayard Sharp 2116 3:38.80 $6,955
1960 Beau Diable 7 Steve Brooks George P. "Maje" Odom Laudy L. Lawrence 2116 3:35.60 $13,646
1959 Cross Channel 5 Karl Korte Edward A. Christmas Howell E. Jackson III 112 2:33.40 $7,703
1958 Cross Channel 4 Karl Korte Edward A. Christmas Howell E. Jackson III 138 2:11.20 $7,146
1957 Race not held
1956 Wise Margin 6 Nick Shuk Sam N. Edmundson Samuel Tufano 2116 3:37.00 $9,600
1952 - 1955 Race not held
1951 Pilaster 7 Nick Shuk Frank A. Bonsal Mrs. Henry Lobe Straus 212 4:29.40 $20,325
1950 Double Brandy 4 Frank Bone Norval L. Schwartz C. Ewing Tuttle 212 4:24.00 $11,025
1949 Pilaster 5 Carson Kirk Frank A. Bonsal Frank A. Bonsal 212 4:20.00 $11,225
1948 Miss Grillo 6 Conn McCreary Horatio Luro Mill River Stable 212 4:14.60 $20,750
1947 Miss Grillo 5 Conn McCreary Horatio Luro Mill River Stable 212 4:29.80 $19,200
1946 Rico Monte 4 Ruperto Donoso Horatio Luro W. Arnold Hanger 212 4:25.20 $23,350
1945 Stymie 4 Robert Permane Hirsch Jacobs Ethel D. Jacobs 212 4:35.20 $21,600
1944 Megogo 3 Kenneth Scawthorne John A. Healey Christiana Stables 212 4:20.20 $22,050
1931 - 1943 Race not held
1930 Mirbat 5 Willie Cannon James W. Healy Edward R. Bradley 214 4:04.40 $9,025
1929 Diavolo 4 James H. Burke James E. Fitzsimmons Wheatley Stable 214 3:54.80 $9,050
1928 Edith Cavell 5 Alfred Robertson Scott Harlan Walter M. Jeffords Sr. 214 3:53.00 $9,525
1927 Display 4 John Maiben Thomas J. Healey Walter J. Salmon Sr. 214 3:56.20 $8,825
1926 Edith Cavell 3 Ovila Bourassa Scott Harlan Walter M. Jeffords Sr. 214 3:52.20 $8,325
1925 Rockminister 6 James Wallace S. Miller Henderson Audley Farm Stable 214 3:58.00 $8,900
1924 Altawood 3 Ivan H. Parke G. Hamilton Keene Joseph E. Widener 214 3:57.00 $7,950
1923 Hephaistos 4 John Callahan Frank E. Brown Frank E. Brown 214 3:58.60 $6,950
1922 Captain Alcock 5 Linus McAtee James E. Fitzsimmons Quincy Stable 214 3:53.40 $7,100
1921 Exterminator 6 Albert Johnson Willie Knapp Willis Sharpe Kilmer 214 4:08.20 $6,800
1920 Exterminator 5 Lavelle Ensor William L. McDaniel Willis Sharpe Kilmer 214 3:53.00 $7,100
1919 Exterminator 4 Clarence Kummer Henry McDaniel Willis Sharpe Kilmer 214 4:13.00 $3,450
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References

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  1. ^ "Stake Dates for 1919". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1919-11-07. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
  2. ^ "Long Distance Racing at Pimlico: Bowie and Pimlico Cups Attractive Record-Breaking Entry List of the Best Horses". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1919-10-23. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
  3. ^ "Exterminators Pimlico Triple". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1958-05-13. Retrieved 2020-03-19.
  4. ^ "Altawood Easily Wins the Pimlico Cup". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1924-11-16. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  5. ^ "Favorite Wins Cup by Forty Lengths". New York Times, Section Sports, page 33. 1947-11-14. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
  6. ^ "Miss Grillo Races To World Record". New York Times, page 11. 1948-11-13. Retrieved 2020-03-19.
  7. ^ "Pilater Annexs Pimlico Cup Race". New York Times, Section Sports, page 8. 1949-11-13. Retrieved 2020-04-21.
  8. ^ "Wise Margin, the 3-2, Wins Pimlico Cup". New York Times, Section S, Page 1. 1956-12-16. Retrieved 2020-03-19.[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ "Sets Track Record". Defiance Crescent News Archives, p. 8 (Defiance, Ohio). 1960-12-12. Retrieved 2020-04-12.[permanent dead link]
  10. ^ "Pimlico Cup Won by Sunshine Cake on Snowy Track". New York Times, Section Sports, page 1. 1961-12-10. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
  11. ^ "Bayard Sharp Was Delaware's Man of Racing". The Blood-Horse. 2002-06-27. Retrieved 2020-04-26.[permanent dead link]