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| Sam Hildreth | |
|---|---|
 Sam Hildreth, 1910 | |
| Occupation | Trainer |
| Born | May 16, 1866 Independence, Missouri, United States |
| Died | September 24, 1929(1929-09-24) (aged 63) |
| Career wins | Not found |
| Major racing wins | |
| Bowie Handicap (1909, 1911, 1915, 1920) Brooklyn Handicap (1909, 1910, 1916, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1924) Metropolitan Handicap (1909, 1915, 1921, 1922, 1923) Suburban Handicap (1909, 1915, 1916, 1923, 1924) Travers Stakes (1910, 1922) Jockey Club Gold Cup (1919, 1921, 1922) American Classic Race wins: | |
| Racing awards | |
| United States Champion trainer by wins (1921, 1927) United States Champion trainer by earnings (1909, 1910, 1911, 1916, 1917 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924) U.S. Leading Thoroughbred owner by earnings (1909, 1910, 1911) | |
| Honors | |
| United States' Racing Hall of Fame (1955) Fair Grounds Racing Hall of Fame (1971) | |
| Significant horses | |
| Jean Bereaud,Fitz Herbert,King James,Novelty,Dalmatian,Friar Rock,Hourless, Mad Hatter,Mahubah,Purchase,Grey Lag,Zev,Mad Play | |
Samuel Clay Hildreth (May 16, 1866 – September 24, 1929) was an AmericanThoroughbred horse racingHall of Fametrainer and owner.[1]
Born inIndependence, Missouri, Sam Hildreth began his training career in 1887, competing at racetracks in theMidwestern United States with such horses as the good racemareHurley Burley, the dam ofBurgomaster. In 1898 he moved to New York City where thoroughbred racing was a leading sport offering the largest purses. He was first hired to train horses owned by wealthy businessmanWilliam Collins Whitney, but soon set out on his own, buying horses for himself and training for others. He won his first of sevenBelmont Stakes in 1899 with the horseJean Bereaud for ownerSydney Paget.
By the turn of the 20th century, Samuel Hildreth had expanded hisNew York operations and owned the largest racing stables at theFair Grounds Race Course inNew Orleans. That year, he appointed formeroutlawFrank James as his betting commissioner at the track. Among the horses Hildreth owned wasFitz Herbert (b. 1906) who won theBrooklyn Handicap,Suburban Handicap, and theJerome Handicap en route to being voted theHorse of the Year in 1909, and again in 1910. Another of his horses,King James, won other important races in 1909, including theMetropolitan Handicap, Sheepshead Bay Handicap, and the California Handicap, and went on to win the Brooklyn Handicap in 1910. In 1909, Hildreth also won his second Belmont Stakes with his own horse,Joe Maddon, and went on to capture the first of three consecutive leading owner and trainer honors in the United States.
TheHart–Agnew Law which bannedparimutuel betting was passed by theNew York Legislature and resulted in the closure of all New York racetracks between 1911 and 1912. Hildreth and numerous other racing stables went to race in Canada where he won the 1911Windsor Hotel Cup Handicap atBlue Bonnets Raceway inMontreal. On November 2, 1911, theNew York Times reported that Sam Hildreth andjockeyCarroll Shilling had sailed to England aboard theRMS Mauretania with the intent of racing there for the stable of American owner,Charles Kohler. However, Kohler subsequently set up operations in France and in 1912 Sam Hildreth trained a stable of horses for him atVal-d'Oise, near Paris.
Sam Hildreth's stable trained for other prominent owners such asAugust Belmont Jr. for whom he won back-to-back Belmont Stakes in 1916 and 1917. He also met with great success training forRancocas Stable owned by wealthyoil industrialistHarry F. Sinclair. For Sinclair he won three Belmont Stakes withGrey Lag in 1921,Zev in 1923 andMad Play in 1924. In an era before theTriple Crown had any significance, Hildreth only entered a few horses in theKentucky Derby because of the time restraints for the long journey toKentucky. As such,David J. Leary is listed as the trainer of Zev for his win in the 1923Kentucky Derby. Back in New York, in October of that year, Zev defeatedEpsom Derby winnerPapyrus, marking the first time a Kentucky Derby winner defeated an English Derby winner.
Twice Sam Hildreth won more races in a year than any other trainer in the United States and was the top money-earning trainer nine times, a record that stood for more than sixty years until broken byD. Wayne Lukas in 1992. Hildreth's seven Belmont Stakes victories ranks him second only toJames G. Rowe Sr. and five times his horses were chosenAmerican Horse of the Year, the highest honor in thoroughbred horse racing.
In 1925, Hildreth co-wrote an article withJames R. Crowell titled "Down the Stretch" forThe Saturday Evening Post. The two then collaborated on a history of American racing in a book titled "The Spell of the Turf" published in 1926 byJ. B. Lippincott & Co. ofPhiladelphia. In this book, he namedPurchase as one of the greatest horses he ever trained.
After forty-three years as a horse trainer, Sam Hildreth died at a hospital inManhattan, New York following an unsuccessful operation for an intestinal disorder. He was buried inGreenridge Cemetery,Saratoga Springs, New York.
In 1955, Sam Hildreth was posthumously inducted into the newly formedNational Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
| International | |
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| National | |
