Futurity Stakes has storied past

They ran the Futurity Stakes at Belmont Park last weekend, and I hope someone noticed.

Engage, who broke his maiden at Saratoga last out, posted an impressive victory in the 127th edition of an event that at one time commanded the attention of nearly everyone in racing.

For 2-year-olds, the Futurity was inaugurated in 1888 at Sheepshead Bay, operated by the Coney Island Jockey Club.

To be eligible for the Futurity, owners of broodmares had to make the first of a series of payments for foals that were not yet born. The process began more than two years before the actual running of the race, and consisted of nominating, sustaining, and starting fees that created the nation’s richest race for many decades.

The first Futurity was run on September 3, 1888, and 21 youngsters were in the field from a list of 752 nominations.

It was won by Proctor Knott, who earned $40,900.

By comparison, the winners of the Derby, Preakness, Belmont and Travers that year earned $4,740, $1,185, $3,440, and $4,625 for first money.

The Futurity held that position for a long time, and its winner was often the leading juvenile earner and the nation’s overall leading earner as well. In 1910 the 23rd edition of the race was run at Saratoga Race Course, as New York’s anti-gambling laws went into effect upon the conclusion of the meeting here, thus ending the fall racing dates downstate.

Sheepshead Bay transferred the race to Saratoga and it was run on August 31. It was won by Novelty, who also won the Saratoga Special and Hopeful Stakes that summer.

For his victory in 1929, Harry Payne Whitney’s Whichone earned $100,730, the first time in American history any horse had earned $100,000 or more for first money.

Third in that race was Gallant Fox, who would win the Triple Crown in 1930.

The respective purses for the Derby, Preakness, Belmont and Travers in 1929 were $53,950, $52,325, $59,650, and $31,825.

The number of greats to have won the Futurity rivals that of any major race on the American calendar.

The unbeaten Colin won it in 1907, and Man o’ War was the winner in 1919, both victories described as “easy” in the charts of the day.

The awesome filly Top Flight defeated the boys in 1931, having earlier won the Saratoga Special and Spinaway.

Triple Crown winners Citation (1947), Secretariat (1972) and Affirmed (1977) were Futurity winners. Tom Fool (1951), Native Dancer (1952), Nashua (1954), and Bold Ruler (1956) highlighted the 1950s.

Those four, winning the race within a five-year period, are all in the Hall of Fame.

When the mighty Buckpasser went to the post in the Futurity of 1965 at Aqueduct, he was favored at 7-to-10 and riding an eight-race winning streak that included the Hopeful Stakes.

But he could not catch the filly Priceless Gem, who led all the way under a brilliant ride by Walter Blum.

Although he finished second, Buckpasser still finished the year with record earnings for a 2-year-old at $568,096.

And as good as that pair was, another 2-year-old named Moccasin would earn Horse of the Year honors, winning all eight of her starts including a trio at Saratoga that included the famed Spinaway Stakes.

Other Futurity winners of significance include champions Bimelech (1939), the filly First Flight (1946), Battlefield (1950), Never Bend (1962), Bold Lad (1964), and Riva Ridge (1971).

The last great horse to win the Futurity was Holy Bull in 1993.

The Futurity today has fallen from Grade 1 to Grade 3, and is one of many important races to suffer since the Breeders’ Cup was inaugurated in 1984.

A Breeders’ Cup that has now been absent from New York since 2005.