The Pilgrim Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually since 1979 at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. A Grade III event raced in late September, it is open to horses two-year-old horses and is contested at a distance of 1⅛ miles (9 furlongs) on turf. In 1983, it was run on dirt. From 2001-2007 the race was not graded.
The race was part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge series from 2008 to 2010, when the winner automatically qualified for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.
The race is named for Joseph E. Widener's horse, Pilgrim, winner of the 1919 Remsen Stakes.
The Pilgrim Stakes was hosted by Aqueduct Racetrack in 2001. It has been contested at two different distances:
- 1 1/ miles : 1991-1994, 1996
- 1⅛ miles : 1979-1990, 1995, 1997 to present
It was run in two divisions in 1979 and again in 1983.
Famous quotes containing the words pilgrim and/or stakes:
“While the very inhabitants of New England were thus fabling about the country a hundred miles inland, which was a terra incognita to them,... Champlain, the first Governor of Canada,... had already gone to war against the Iroquois in their forest forts, and penetrated to the Great Lakes and wintered there, before a Pilgrim had heard of New England.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“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)