Agua Caliente Handicap
The Agua Caliente Handicap is a defunct thoroughbred horse race that was once the premier event at Agua Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, and the richest race in North America. The race has been won by many champions, including Round Table, Gallant Sir, who won it twice and in record time, Phar Lap and Seabiscuit.
Known also as the Coffroth Handicap, in the 1930s the event offered a $100,000 purse which drew some of the top horses in the United States and was the race in which Phar Lap, ridden by Billy Elliot made his only North American appearance.
Gallant Sir won the Agua Caliente Handicap two years in a row, the first as a four-year-old in 1933 when he broke the Agua Caliente track record set by Phar Lap the previous year.
After the 1934 racing season, the government of Mexico outlawed gambling until 1938 by which time the track had already been replaced by the new Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, United States, as the choice of owners to run their horses
Winners
- 1958 - Round Table
- 1939 - 1957: no race
- 1938 - Seabiscuit
- 1935 - 1937: no race
- 1934 - Gallant Sir
- 1933 - Gallant Sir
- 1932 - Phar Lap
- 1931 - Mike Hall
- 1930 - Victorian
- 1929 - Golden Prince
- 1928 - Crystal Pennant
- 1927 - Sir Harry
- 1926 - Carlaris
- 1925 - Atherstone
- 1924 - Runstar
- 1923 - Rebuke
- 1922 - Mulciber
- 1921 - Be Frank
- 1918 - 1920: no race
- 1917 - Sasin
References
- Hillenbrand, Laura. Seabiscuit: An American Legend. "The Cougar and the Iceman." (2001) Ballantine Books
- The Agua Caliente Handicap at the Pedigreequery.com