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NOTED AMERICAN RACE Early History of Maryland Jockey Club and the Dixie Stakes. How the Race Originated and Some of Its Famous Winners Its Revival Popular. 1 The ever progressive Maryland Jockey Club made a move in the right direction when it decided to revive the Dixie Handicap, a popular American stake fixture of early racing days in Maryland. At least the response of owners in entering their horses for this race would seem to indicate that no mistake was made, as 116 nominations were received. The Dixie Handicap is for three-year-olds and over, by subscription of 0 each, starters to pay 00 each to the winner, with 5,000 added, of which ,000 to the second. ,000 to the third and ,000 to the fourth, to be run at the coming spring meeting at Pimlico in May, at one mile and three-sixteenths. The weights will be announced February 1, which will give trainers ample time to try out their entries, and size up their chances for the big Pimlico fixture, while the entrance and starting fees will insure the right sort of horses going to the post. The entry list is now being compiled and will be ready for publication shortly. It comprises 116 names in fifty-two separate interests, representing the leading stables on the turf. "Lnirfdhnectiori "with T" the " revival "of this important fixture it may be of interest to relate some of the early history of the Maryland Jockey Club and how the Dixie Stakes was established. INCEPTION IX 1SG3. The Maryland Jockey Club had its inception at a dinner party at Saratoga in 1S68. Racing at that famous watering place had already attained to such pre-eminence as to attract the attention of lovers of the sport from other parts of the country and to stimulate in them a desire to emulate in their own localities the achievements o the Saratoga course. It was naturally to be expected that such a feeling should early be developed among wealthy Marylanders, for their state shared with Virginia and South Carolina the honor of being the birthplace of American thoroughbred racing. Those who felt in that year of 1S6S that it was quite time that Maryland should return again to the support of that sport which had been its former pride and glory, both as a colony and a state, decided, to use their own language, "to inaugurate the contemplated meeting appointed to take place at Baltimore in 1870 by a sweepstakes of such magnitude as would command, from its value and the celebrity of the colts and filles that would probably be engaged in it, an attention and an interest from the racing public gratifying to all true friends of the turf in every section of our common country." 2TA3IED DINNER STAKES. In honor of the occasion the event was called the Dinner Party Stakes, the conditions of which were a sweepstakes for colts and fillies, then three-year-olds, the distance two miles. The subscription was limited to the gentlemen present and closed with seven subscribers. Subsequently, at the request of owners from all parts of the country the stake was reopened, made of a. broader and more valuable characted and attracted national attention. After two or three years the Dinner Stakes was changed to the Dixie Stakes, and as such became one of the most important and valuable turf events of the country. The noted Preakness, on the threshold oC his fame, was the first winner, in 1S70. The even more famous Harry Bassett "walked over" for it in 1871, and other great horses included among its winners were Hubbard, Tom Bowling, Vandalite, Tom Ochiltree, Vigil, King Faro, Duke of Magenta, Monitor, Grenada," Crickmore, Monarch, George Kinney, Loftin, East Lynne, The Bard, Hanover and Taragon. With such a wealth of tradition invested in it the revived Dixie Handicap should regain its former place of glory on the American turf and take rank with the Preakness Stakes and Pimlico Futurity as the greatest of the Pimlico stake features.
