William Kissam Vanderbilt - Thoroughbred Horse Racing

Thoroughbred Horse Racing

Vanderbilt was one of the founders of The Jockey Club. He was a shareholder and president of the Sheepshead Bay Race Track in Brooklyn, New York and the owner of a successful racing stable.

In 1896, he built the American Horse Exchange at 50th Street (Manhattan) and Broadway. In 1911 he leased it (and eventually sold it to) the Shubert Organization who then transformed it into the Winter Garden Theatre.

After his divorce from Alva, he moved to France where he built a château and established the Haras du Quesnay horse racing stable and breeding farm near Deauville in France's famous horse region of Lower Normandy. Among the horses he owned was the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame filly Maskette, purchased from Castleton Farm in Lexington, Kentucky for broodmare services at his French breeding farm. Vanderbilt's horses won a number of important races in France including:

  • Critérium de Maisons-Laffitte: Prestige (1905), Northeast (1907), Montrose II (1911)
  • Critérium de Saint-Cloud: Illinois II (1901), Marigold (1902)
  • Grand Critérium: Prestige (1905), Montrose II (1911)
  • Grand Prix de Deauville: Turenne (1904), Maintenon (1906)
  • Grand Prix de Paris: Northeast (1908), Brumelli (1917)
  • Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud: Maintenon (1906), Sea Sick (1908), Oversight (1910)
  • Poule d'Essai des Poulains: McKinley (1919)
  • Prix de Guiche: Negofol (1909), McKinley (1919)
  • Prix de la Forêt: Prestige (1905), Montrose II (1911, dead-heat), Pétulance (1911, dead-heat)
  • Prix du Jockey Club: Maintenon (1906), Sea Sick (1908), Negofol (1909), Tchad (1919)
  • Prix Eugène Adam: Alpha (1903), Maintenon (1906)
  • Prix Boiard: Prestige (1906), Maintenon (1907) et Tchad (1920)
  • Prix Jean Prat: Prestige (1906)
  • Prix Kergorlay: Turenne (1904), Maintenon (1906), Sea Sick (1909, 1910)
  • Prix Lagrange: Prestige (1906)
  • Prix Morny: Prestige (1905), Messidor III (1909) et Manfred (1910)
  • Prix Robert Papin: Prestige (1905), Montrose II (1911), Gloster (1912)
  • Prix La Rochette: Schuyler (1907), Manfred (1910), Brume (1910), Pétulance (1911)
  • Prix Royal-Oak: Maintenon (1906), Reinhart (1910)

William Kissam Vanderbilt died in Paris, France on July 22, 1920. His remains were brought home and interred in the Vanderbilt family vault in the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp, Staten Island, New York.

In World War II, the United States liberty ship SS William K. Vanderbilt was named in his honor.

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