Stephen Foster Handicap Stephen Foster Handicap The Stephen Foster Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race run in mid-June near the end of the Churchill Downs Spring Meet in Louisville, Kentucky. The race is named in honor of famed composer Stephen Foster, who wrote numerous melodies including "My Old Kentucky Home" which is the song that is annually played as the Kentucky Derby field parades on the track. It is run on the dirt at a distance of miles for three-year-olds and up. The Stephen Foster Handicap was created in 1982 and progressed from Grade III status in 1988 to Grade II in
Emerald Downs the first horse to win the Longacres Mile twice at Emerald Downs. Note: (QH) = Quarter Horse Emerald Downs biggest race is the Longacres Mile Handicap, a Grade III event. The race was announced in June 1935 so Longacres founder Joe Gottstein could have a signature one mile (1.6 km) race. He felt the mile was an overlooked distance, neither a sprint nor an endurance run. In order to attract racers and attention, the purse was set at $10,000, instantly the largest staked one mile (1.6 km) race in the country (and it would remain so for more than 40