Ten Things You Should Know: Eddie Read Stakes
By Kevin Martin, Hello Race Fans Contributing Editor
Originally published on July 19, 2012
1) The Eddie Read Stakes is a 1 1/8 miles turf race for 3-years-old and up at the Del Mar Race Track in California.
2) Run for the first time in 1974, the race is named for Eddie Read, the late director of publicity at Del Mar.
3) The race was first run as a graded stakes in 1980, was upgraded to a Grade 2 in 1982, and has been a Grade 1 since 1988.
4) Kotashaan won the Eddie Read and the Breeders’ Cup Turf during a campaign that earned him the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year in 1993.
5) In 2005, the eventual winner of the Breeders’ Cup Mile, Singletary, finished third in that year’s Eddie Read.
6) The third-place finisher in the 1998 Eddie Read, Hawksley Hill, was beaten a nose in the Breeders’ Cup Mile by Da Hoss.
7) The 1992 Eddie Read winner, Marquetry, would go on to sire two Breeders’ Cup Sprint winners: Squirtle Squirt (2001) and Artax (1999).
8) A horse named The Bart finished second in the 1980 Eddie Read. A year later, he was on the wrong end of one of the most famous photo finishes in racing history when he ran second to John Henry in the inaugural Arlington Million.
9) The Irish-bred Aragorn set the Del Mar track record in the 2006 Eddie Read, stopping the clock at 1:44.79.
10) Trainer Bobby Frankel has a record seven wins in the race. He won his first in 1977 with No Turning and the last in 1997 with Expelled.