Flashback: Remembering 4 historic Suburban Handicaps

When the Grade 2, $700,000 Suburban runs Saturday at Belmont Park, racing fans will be treated to the 113th renewal of an event that ranks among the most historic and storied in the history of North American racing.

First run in 1884 at long-gone Sheepshead Bay racetrack, the list of Suburban winners reads like a “who’s who” of racing legends. Known for years as the Suburban Handicap, the 1 ¼-mile race has long served as a major test for high-class older horses, challenging them to carry high weights against quality competition.

Let’s glance back through the long history of the Suburban and recall four particularly memorable renewals of the great race…

1905: Beldame Beats the Boys

As a 3-year-old filly in 1904, Beldame repeatedly beat up on high-class males in prestigious stakes races, winning 12 of her 14 starts during a Horse of the Year-worthy campaign. The following season, she picked up where she left off and scored an easy victory in the Suburban Handicap while carrying 123 pounds and conceding weight to her male rivals.

Per the June 16, 1905, edition of the Fremont, Nebraska, Fremont Tribune, Beldame handled the promising Delhi “almost without being extended until near the end of the mile and a quarter journey. A great crowd witnessed the race.”

No less an authority than renowned turf writer John Hervey praised the power of Beldame’s effort. In the book Horse Racing Divas, published by Eclipse Press, David Schmitz quotes Harvey as writing “[Beldame’s] performance was so brilliant that it caused her to be proclaimed the greatest racer of her sex that had ever graced the American turf, for it came as a climax after a wondrous previous career.”

1913: Whisk Broom II Clocks 2:00 Flat

Arguably the most controversial running of the Suburban came in 1913, when Belmont Park resumed racing following a two-year hiatus. No one argued the superiority of Whisk Broom II, who toted 139 pounds to a hard-fought triumph after previously winning the Metropolitan and Brooklyn Handicaps. This success under a record-setting impost gave Whisk Broom II a first-ever sweep of the “Handicap Triple Crown,” a feat recognized as historic even at the time. Whisk Broom II was universally applauded for his remarkable talent and weight-carrying ability.

No, the controversy stemmed from Whisk Broom II’s final time of 2:00 flat for 1 ¼ miles, which absolutely shattered the previous American record of 2:02 4/5. “The crowd greeted this information with loud applause, and the professionals with snorts of disbelief,” wrote William H. P. Robertson in The History of Thoroughbred Racing in America. Various horsemen in attendance clocked the race considerably slower, including the future two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, who stopped his watch in 2:02 2/5.

“However, the timer stuck by his guns and August Belmont stuck by him,” wrote Robertson, “so the 2:00 flat went into the record book.” And there it remained as the American record until 1948, when Shannon II (carrying just 124 pounds) clocked 1:59 4/5 at Golden Gate Fields.

1968: Dr. Fager Defeats Damascus

The 1968 Suburban Handicap pitted superstars Dr. Fager and Damascus against each other in their first showdown as older horses. Despite being saddled with 132 and 133 pounds, respectively, the two colts with a combined 26 stakes wins under their belts put on a show from start to finish.

The speedy Dr. Fager set the pace as expected, but in a surprising turn of events, the typically late-running Damascus aggressively forced the issue, hounding Dr. Fager through the middle of the race and drawing within a head of the lead after six furlongs.

But Dr. Fager refused to crack, even while racing over a distance seemingly beyond his best. “I was able to set my own pace, so that my horse had plenty left to turn on in the stretch,” explained Dr. Fager’s jockey, Braulio Baeza, in the July 5, 1968, edition of the New York Daily News. “Three times during the race, Damascus got close enough to be dangerous, but each time we pulled away a little bit.”

Down the stretch Dr. Fager left the exhausted Damascus behind and held off a late rally from longshot Bold Hour to win by two lengths in the track record-equaling time of 1:59 3/5. His quick clocking also represented the fastest Suburban ever run, besting the previous record time of 2:00 posted by — you guessed it — Whisk Broom II.

Skip Away Wins Battle of the Big Beyers (1997)

When the Grade 1-winning 4-year-olds Skip Away, Will’s Way, and Formal Gold squared off in the Suburban Handicap on Independence Day 1997, you just knew they were going to put on a show. They had taken turns beating each other throughout the spring while throwing down sensational Beyer Speed Figures, and before the year was out, they would crack the 122 Beyer barrier a staggering seven times.

In the Suburban, Skip Away was the 122-pound highweight and even-money favorite against his two accomplished rivals. After tracking the early pace, jockey Shane Sellers allowed Skip Away to drop back to fourth place before re-rallying outside of horses for the stretch run.

“First I saw my horse on the lead, then I saw him behind at the quarter pole,” said Skip Away’s trainer Sonny Hine in the July 5, 1997, edition of Louisville's The Courier-Journal. “I didn’t know what was going on. Seriously, I didn’t want him on the lead, and I didn’t want him on the fence. But Shane knows how to ride him, and Skippy is a game horse… When he got clear, I knew he would put in his run.”

Hine was correct. Turning for home, the favorites sprinted away from their overmatched rivals and engaged in a thrilling three-horse duel down the homestretch. With a furlong remaining, they were spread across the track on virtually even terms, but Skip Away was moving strongest and pulled away down the lane to prevail by 1 ½ lengths with a 118 Beyer. Will’s Way held second by less than a length over Formal Gold, with a gap of fifteen lengths back to the rest. 

“I know if this didn’t work out that people would be saying the jockey is an idiot,” said Sellers of his strategy in The Courier-Journal. “But you have to realize that I know Skip Away like the back of my hand… I feel like when I call on him he’s going to deliver.”