The Test Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race open to three-year-old fillies and run each summer at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is contested at a distance of seven furlongs on the dirt and is an influential race in shaping the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. A Grade I event, it carries a purse of $250,000.
In its 84rd running in 2009, it was first run at Saratoga in 1922. Over the years it has also become an important race for fillies pointing towards the Grade I Alabama Stakes which also runs at Saratoga Race Course.
Inaugurated at a mile and quarter, it went to seven furlongs in its second running. The Test Stakes took place at Belmont Park in 1943, 1944, and 1945. It was not run from 1923 to 1925 or in 1961. It was run in two divisions in 1960, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, and 1979.
Famous quotes containing the words test and/or stakes:
“Whenever a true theory appears, it will be its own evidence. Its test is, that it will explain all phenomena.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“This man was very clever and quick to learn anything in his line. Our tent was of a kind new to him; but when he had once seen it pitched, it was surprising how quickly he would find and prepare the pole and forked stakes to pitch it with, cutting and placing them right the first time, though I am sure that the majority of white men would have blundered several times.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)