United States Hotel Stakes

The United States Hotel Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually in the late summer or early autumn until 1955 at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. It was run on dirt over a distance of six furlongs. Raced in the pre-grading era, for most of its existence the race was one of the premier shorter distance competitions for two-year-old horses in the United States.

The first running of the United States Hotel Stakes took place in 1880 and was raced for three-year-olds until 1895 when it was changed to a competition for two-year-olds. The inaugural race was won by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Luke Blackburn. It was so successful that in 1901 the New York Times was reporting that it was a "rich" race because it offered a purse of $10,000.[1]

While Man o' War, who would be ranked No.1 in the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century, and other great horses in the history of American Thoroughbred racing won this race, it is also notable for two notable horses who did not. In 1929, the ensuing year's U.S. Triple Crown champion and future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Gallant Fox finished second. Whirlaway, another U.S. Triple Crown champion and future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee, suffered the same fate in 1940.

The last horse to win the United States Hotel Stakes was Career Boy, a colt owned by prominent horseman Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney who went on to be voted the American Champion Male Turf Horse for 1956. The runner-up was Canadian Champ, the 1956 Canadian Horse of the Year and Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee.