Beldame - Career and Retirement

Career and Retirement

As a two-year-old, Beldame won the Great Filly Stakes at Sheepshead Bay and the Vernal Stakes (wiring the field).

When Beldame was three, she won twelve of her fourteen starts, earning the championship of her division. Her only losses came against older males. That year, she took the Alabama Stakes, the Gazelle Handicap (by ten lengths on a sloppy track), the Carter Handicap (against males by over two lengths under a stout hold), the Ladies Stakes, the Saratoga Cup (beating the year-older Belmont Stakes winner and Champion Three-Year-Colt, Africander), the First Special, the Second Special, the Dolphin Sakes, the Mermaid Stakes (winning by seven lengths and drawing away from the field even as she was being eased up), and the September Stakes.

In the Ladies Stakes, Beldame got loose under her substitute rider before the race and galloped all over the track looking for an opening to run back to the barn. She found it before her jockey, Gene Hildebrand, got her under control. She returned to the track minutes later, wired the race, and won easily.

Due to her success, track officials weighted Beldame so heavily she won only twice at the age of four. That year, she won the Standard Handicap, and then, carrying more weight than the males, she won the Suburban Handicap, beating Broomstick by five lengths.

Beldame retired with 17 wins, 6 places, and 4 shows from 31 starts. Her earnings amounted to $102,570. Following Firenze and Miss Woodford, she was the third filly to win more than $100,000. Her usual rider was Hall of Famer Frank O'Neill. Her first trainer, when she was campaigned by Belmont, was Hall of Famer John J. Hyland. While she was leased to Bennington, Hall of Famer Fred Burlew trained her.

After Beldame's retirement, Belmont took her to the re-creation of his father's Nursery Stud, the original farm being dispersed after August Belmont's death.