The Carry Back Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Calder Race Course in Miami Gardens, Florida. Run during the first part of July, the race is open to three-year-old horses willing to race six furlongs on the dirt. A Grade II event, it currently offers a purse of $300,000.
This race is named in honor of the Florida-bred 1961 American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse, Carry Back whose wins included the 1961 Flamingo Stakes and Florida Derby, as well as that year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. Carry back was inducted in the United States Racing Hall of Fame in 1975.
Inaugurated in 1975 as a race for two-year-old horses, in 1979 it was changed to a race for horses aged three and older. Since 1980 it has been restricted to three-year-olds and from 1981 to 1993 was run as the Carry Back Handicap. Since inception it has been contested at a variety of distances:
- 5 ½ furlongs : 1975-1978
- 6 furlongs : 1980-1982, 1997 to present
- 6 ½ furlongs : 1991
- 7 furlongs : 1979, 1992-1996
Read more about Carry Back Stakes: Records, Winners of The Carry Back Stakes Since 1975
Famous quotes containing the words carry and/or stakes:
“But no matter how they make you feel, you should always watch elders carefully. They were you and you will be them. You carry the seeds of your old age in you at this very moment, and they hear the echoes of their childhood each time they see you.”
—Kent Nerburn (20th century)
“Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of men.”
—William Empson (1906–1984)