Washington Park Handicap

The Washington Park Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually during the first week of September at Arlington Park Racetrack in Arlington Heights, Illinois. A Grade III event open to horses age three and older, it is contested on Polytrack synthetic dirt over a distance of a mile and three-sixteenths (9.5 furlongs). The race is designed to be a prep for the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Inaugurated at the now defunct Washington Park Race Track, in 1958 it was moved to Arlington Park. In 1978 and 1979 it was contested on turf.

In 1935 the race was run as the Washington Park Championship Stakes and from 1980 through 1985 as the Washington Park Stakes.

Since inception, the race has been contersted at various distances:

  • 6 furlongs : 1927-1934, 1938;
  • 1 mile : 1951-1958, 1960–1962, 1965–1972;
  • 1⅛ miles : 1939, 1959, 1963–1964, 1975–1977, 1980–1987, 1989–1997, 2000;
  • 1³/ miles : 1978-1979 (on turf), 2002–present;
  • 1¼ : 1926, 1935–36, 1940–1950, 1973–74, 2001.

Read more about Washington Park Handicap:  Records, Winners

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