The Distaff Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race held each spring at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, Queens. Open to fillies and mares, age three and up, willing to race the six furlong distance, the Grade II event offers a purse of $200,000 added.
Inaugurated in 1954 at the old Aqueduct racetrack, the Distaff Handicap was run at Belmont Park from 1956 through 1959.
The race has been contested at two different distances:
- 7 furlongs : 1954-1976, 1980-1983, 1985-1992, 1995-2005
- 6 furlongs : 1977, 1978, 1979, 1984, 1994, 2006-present
It was run in two divisions in 1964. There was no race run in 1993 due to inclement weather.
The Distaff Handicap, in its 59th running in 2013, is one of the few graded stakes for fillies and mares at a sprint distance.
Famous quotes containing the words distaff and/or handicap:
“... by and large, wife-changing and high office are not compatible. This inequity accounts for the many dull women in Washington and is the cause of much smug complacency on the distaff side of political marriages.”
—Barbara Howar (b. 1934)
“I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)