Prix du Gros Chêne Prix du Gros Chêne The Prix du Gros Chêne is a Group 2 flat horse race in France open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run at Chantilly over a distance of 1,000 metres (about 5 furlongs), and it is scheduled to take place each year in late May or early June. The event was established in 1857, and it was originally contested over 800 metres. Its title refers to a large oak tree which stood in the grounds of the racecourse – the English translation of "Gros Chêne" is "Great Oak". The race was abandoned because
Maryland Jockey Club interruption by the U.S. Civil War. Maryland Governor Oden Bowie and others attended that Saratoga meet and devised the Dinner Party Stakes (now called the Dixie Stakes) for a track in Baltimore. In September 1869, the first Maryland State Fair was held at Pimlico Race Course. The present site of the Maryland Jockey Club was opened at Pimlico on October 25, 1870. A new corporation (Pimlico) was organized on May 14 of that same year in a ballroom of the Barnum's City Hotel in Baltimore. Governor Oden Bowie was elected its first President. The first stakes race held at the