Ten Things You Shoud Know: Strub Stakes
By Kevin Martin, Hello Race Fans Contributing Editor
1) The Grade 2 Strub Stakes is a race for 4-year-olds at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California.
2) The race was run for the first time in 1948. For most of its history, it was run at a distance of 1 ¼ miles. In 1998 it was shortened to 1 ⅛ miles, the same year it was downgraded from a Grade 1.
3) The race was originally called the Santa Anita Maturity. The name changed in 1963 to honor Charles H. Strub, a.k.a. ‘Doc,’ a dentist and entrepreneur who owned Santa Anita from its opening in 1934 until his death in 1958. In 1993, the race simply became the Strub, to also honor ‘Doc’ Strub’s son, Robert P. Strub, a former track president at Santa Anita who died in 1993.
4) In 1950, Kentucky Derby winner Ponder won the the third edition of the Strub. Five years later Determine, another Kentucky Derby winner, took the eighth edition.
5) In 1958, Round Table won the Strub. It was his second win in a streak of seven straight to begin his 4-year-old campaign. Round Table was voted champion grass and handicap horse as well as Horse of the Year in 1958.
6) The last Triple Crown winner, Affirmed, broke a four-race losing streak in winning the 1979 Strub by 10 lengths. Affirmed would never lose again after the Strub, finishing his career with seven straight wins en route to his second straight Horse of the Year award.
7) Spectacular Bid set a world record for 1 ¼ miles on a dirt track at 1:57 ⅕ in winning the 1980 Strub.
8) The 1967 Horse of the Year, Damascus, was upset by the California-bred Most Host in the 1968 Strub. Most Host was co-owned by Jack and Maggie Robbins. In 1986, the Robbins family had another surprise Strub winner in Nostalgia’s Star, who beat Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Proud Truth. Nostalgia’s Star was co-owned by Maggie Robbins and trained by her son, Jay.
9) In 1998, Hall of Famer Silver Charm won the Strub Stakes. In his next race, he won the four million dollar Dubai World Cup.
10) In a strange twist of fate, the Robbinses were on the wrong end of the 2001 Strub (chart) when Tiznow, the reigning Horse of the Year, was upset by Wooden Phone. Tiznow was trained by Jay Robbins.
