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
Banstead Downs ill-contrived royalist rising of 1648 took place at Kingston, the original plan had included a muster of adherents, as for a horse race, on Banstead Downs. Rumour was rife at the time of such an assembly being formed, and that Holland had marched thither from Kingston. But in fact he had marched to Dorking, and Major Audeley, who was on his track, went over Banstead Downs without finding him or the assembly. The rising had in fact exploded prematurely. There is evidence of races at Banstead as early as 1625, when the Banstead Downs Plate of £20 value was run