In praise of the Alabama
The Alabama, first run in 1872, is one of the oldest stakes races in the country; on Saturday, it’ll be run for the 139th time.
The list of winners over the past 75 years includes many of the best 3-year-old fillies of the post WWII era, many of whom continued to distinguish themselves at age four and sometimes beyond. Alabama winners this decade include Royal Delta, who was recently inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame, and Songbird, who will almost certainly follow her in 2023.
The Alabama has another distinction: with the Delaware Handicap having once again lost its Grade 1 rating, the Alabama is the only Grade 1 dirt race for females (of any age) run at 10 furlongs.
In fact, the Alabama and the Delaware are the only graded stakes (at any grade level) for fillies and mares carded at 10 furlongs on dirt. Two other longtime Grade 1s have had their distances shortened to nine furlongs this decade. The Coaching Club American Oaks, which had previously been run at 12 furlongs, was shorted to 10 furlongs in 2004 and then to nine in 2010. The Personal Ensign was cut back from 10 furlongs to nine in 2012.
At this point, it’s fair to wonder if the Alabama is also in danger of having its distance shortened. When a race is cut back, the explanation is usually that a shorter distance will attract larger fields, which may or may not be true. As far as field size is concerned, the Alabama is doing all right. Its average of 7.2 starters over the past decade is not far from the norm.
The fields for the Alabama have recently changed in one sense, however. For the second time in three years, no winners of the six Grade 1 divisional races run earlier in the year have gone on to compete in the Alabama. The six Grade 1s are contested at a range of distances: the Kentucky Oaks and Coaching Club American Oaks are run at nine furlongs, the Ashland and Santa Anita Oaks at 8½, the Acorn at eight and the Test at seven.
No horses compete in both the Test and Alabama anymore, and not just because the schedule won’t allow it. Three fillies won both races in the early 90s, including the great Go for Wand, who famously won the Alabama eight days after winning the Test. The last horse to win both was Society Selection in 2004, when the races were scheduled three weeks apart.
Horsemen skip the Alabama for a variety reasons. One of them is that they don’t want to run top 3-year-old fillies at 10 furlongs when – unless they compete in the Delaware Handicap as a 4-year-old – they’ll never have to run that far again. Maybe things would have turned out differently had the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, the most important divisional race of the year, remained at 10 furlongs and not been cut back to nine in 1988.
In a way, the Alabama constitutes the same sort of anachro
nism for 3-year-old fillies that the Belmont Stakes does for 3-year-old males. The Belmont is also run at a distance (12 furlongs) that participants will almost certainly never have to compete at again.
The Alabama and Belmont aren’t important solely for the tradition they represent, as races that have been run under the same conditions for well over a century. They’re also important for being among the last of a breed, tests of stamina that the sport unfortunately has allowed to all but disappear from the racing calendar.