The Santa Maria Handicap is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race run annually in early February at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. A race for fillies and mares age four and older, it is contested on Pro-Ride synthetic dirt over a distance of one and one-sixteenth miles (8.5 furlongs).
Since the inaugural running in 1934, the Santa Maria Handicap has been contested at various distances:
- 6 furlongs: 1934–1936, 1938–1940
- 3 furlongs: 1941
- 8 furlongs (1 mile): 1946, 1947, 1952–1953
- 7 furlongs: 1954–1956
- 8.5 furlongs (11/ miles): 1957–present
The Santa Maria was run as a stakes from 1938 through 1947 and was raced in two divisions in 1983 and 1984.
There was no race in 1937, nor from 1948 through 1951.
Famous quotes containing the words santa, maria and/or handicap:
“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.”
—Shirley Temple Black (b. 1928)
“He reproduced himself with so much humble objectivity, with the unquestioning, matter of fact interest of a dog who sees himself in a mirror and thinks: there’s another dog.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926)
“I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)