Carlton Stakes

The Carlton Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds run annually from 1887 thru 1910 at Gravesend Race Track in the Gravesend neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York. An event run at a distance of one mile on a dirt surface, the Carlton often attracted some of the top-level horses in the country. However, in its second running the New York Times called the 1888 Carlton Stakes a “Complete farce” because there were only four runners scheduled to run in the one mile event but Now or Never, owned by Alexander Cassatt, plus Lucky Baldwin’s future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Emperor of Norfolk were both withdrawn. As a result, Sir Dixon, ridden by future Hall of Fame jockey Jim McLaughlin, and Raceland with Andrew Godfrey aboard, were the only starters.