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Lest We Forget: The 20th Century’s Only Female Belmont Stakes Champion
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- Lest We Forget: The 20th Century’s Only Female Belmont Stakes Champion
Later this fall, the third incarnation of storied Belmont Park on Long Island will host racing again after a three-year absence. Next spring, the Belmont Stakes will return to its rightful home. Before we consider who will capture the first edition of the "Test of the Champion" at the new Belmont Park, let's take a look back at the only filly to win the Belmont Stakes during the 20th century.
The Belmont Stakes had been held at Jerome Park and Morris Park before the original state-of-the-art Belmont Park, the brainchild of August Belmont, Jr. and William Collins Whitney, opened on May 4, 1905.
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Though William Collins Whitney was involved in Thoroughbred racing for only six years, from 1898 until his death in 1904, he found considerable success in the sport. Whitney's life had been one of triumph and tragedy. During his career, the Yale University and Harvard Law School graduate served as Corporation Counsel for New York City; joint owner of the Metropolitan Traction Co., which controlled New York City's rapid transit system of elevated trains; and served as the Secretary of the Navy during his close friend President Grover Cleveland's first term from 1885 to 1889. Tragedy struck swiftly and often, as Whitney was widowed twice and lost his youngest daughter to scarlet fever. He found relaxation in the breeding and racing of horses and dove into the sport with aplomb in 1898, when he was 57 years old.
The majority of his early successes came via purchase or lease, namely 1899 Belmont Stakes winner Jean Bereaud, purchased from David Gideon and John Daly, and 1901 English Derby winner Volodyovski, leased from Lady Meux. Whitney got into breeding in a big way with the purchase of two stallions: Hanover's champion son, Hamburg, and Meddler. From these two stallions, Whitney got two of the best horses he ever bred – Artful and Tanya – though sadly, he never lived to see them race.
Meddler, an English import, went undefeated in three starts as a juvenile and was considered a prime contender for the English classics until the premature death of his owner, George A. Baird, rendered his classic engagements void due to the rules then in force. The colt never again set foot on a racetrack and was sold to William H. Forbes, former president of the Bell Telephone Co., for the hefty price of $76,000. Installed at Forbes's Neponset Stud in Massachusetts, Meddler stood there until his owner's death in 1897, whereupon he was sold in the dispersal to Whitney for $49,000 and sent to Whitney's LaBelle Stud near Lexington.
A better-bred stallion than Meddler was hard to find. His sire, St. Gatien, had won the English Derby. His dam, Busybody, and granddam, Spinaway, had each captured the One Thousand Guineas and Oaks, while his third dam, Queen Bertha, took the Oaks. To Meddler's court in 1901, Whitney sent one of his astute broodmare purchases, the chestnut Handspun, winner of the Tennessee Oaks. She, too, was exquisitely bred, being a daughter of champion Hanover out of the Leamington mare Spinaway, champion 2-year-old filly of 1880 and named for her English counterpart. Handspun came from a good family; her fourth dam, Emilia, was the dam of important sire Australian and second dam of Kentucky Derby winner Ben Ali and Memento, winner of the very first Spinaway Stakes in 1881. Handspun was a half-sister to Suburban Handicap winner Lazzarone.
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The foal born of Meddler and Handspun was a striking chestnut filly with a distinctive blazed face and three white stockings. Foaled around the same time was a dark bay Hamburg filly with a blaze. She was named Artful, and the flashy chestnut miss was named Tanya. Their racing careers would intertwine. One would become a Classic winner, and one would find her place in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. Both fillies were very highly regarded when they arrived at the stable of trainer John W. Rogers for their early lessons. A Standardbred trainer for a good part of his young adult life before turning to Thoroughbreds when he was nearly 40, Rogers had trained such stars as Modesty, Freeland, Troubadour, and Preakness winner Buddhist.
Rogers, at the age of 52, knew exceptional horses when he saw them, and the two Whitney fillies showed all the signs of being very good. Tanya proved very precocious in her training and was ready for her first start on May 5, 1904, in a 4 ½-furlong maiden affair at Morris Park in the Bronx. Sadly, her breeder was not there to witness her debut. William Collins Whitney had died three months previously after an emergency operation for a ruptured appendix led to peritonitis. The wide regard in which Whitney was held in business and politics was shown by the who's who of the ten men who acted as pall bearers at his New York City funeral, including former president Grover Cleveland; Elihu Root, former Secretary of War under presidents McKinley and Roosevelt; business magnate Thomas F. Ryan; financier J. Pierpont Morgan; P.A.B. Widener, co-founder of U.S. Steel; and Hamilton McKown Twombly, the co-founder of General Electric.
While Whitney's $20 million estate was being settled, many of his horses were leased for the 1904 racing season to Herman B. Duryea, including Tanya. In her debut against six other fillies under jockey Willie Shaw, Tanya broke sharply and took command immediately, cruising to a four-length victory in :54 flat. A week later, over the same distance and the same Eclipse course at Morris Park, Tanya made a show both before and during the race. Her demeanor in the pre-race activities in the paddock was such that the New York Times commented that she was a filly "of so sweet a disposition that all through the time she was in the paddock (yesterday) she played with the rubbing rag, manipulated by a groom, as a kitten would play with a ball on a string." After the gates opened, though, she turned into a wildcat, grabbing the lead from the start and running her six rivals into submission by 1 ½ lengths in :51 ⅕, a new world record. Only nine days later, over the same course but over a distance of five furlongs, Tanya was sent after the rich National Stallion Stakes.
This time, Tanya met a more formidable opponent in Belle Strome, who was just as eager for the lead at the start of the race as Tanya, but she won out as Tanya's rider, Shaw, took his mount back into a second-place stalking position. Once in the stretch, it became a real battle, as the two fillies hooked up and ran as a team to the wire, with Tanya barely prevailing by a hard-fought head in a snappy :58 ⅕.
Tanya, Shaw up, after winning National Stallion Stakes, Morris Park, 05.21.1904Keeneland Library Hemment Collection
Then as now, Saratoga was the August place to be, especially since William Collins Whitney had been so instrumental in bringing the struggling track back to prominence just after the turn of the 20th century. He and his investors purchased the track and had new stands, stables, and the Oklahoma training track constructed. It became a showplace and the venue where Tanya demonstrated her brilliance and complete dominance in her performances.
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So impressed with Tanya's brilliance in her first three races, Rogers and Duryea decided not to point their striking filly just to Saratoga's premier race for juvenile fillies, the Spinaway, but also to the Hopeful Stakes. Victory in the Spinaway was never in doubt based on her spring form. The New York Times wrote of the race: "The victory appealed strongly to sentiment among the older turfmen, Tanya being the granddaughter of the great racemare for which the stakes was named, Spinaway… Tanya has proved herself worthy of her ancestry… There was just a flash of green and white, and Tanya was in front before the field really settled down to running, and from that time to the finish of the race, Tanya was galloping out in front."
Ten days later, on Aug. 13, Tanya went to the post along with ten other competitors for the six-furlong Hopeful Stakes, already considered a sought-after event for juvenile colts in just its second running. The winner of the first running, James R. Keene's Delhi, had gone on to win the Belmont Stakes and would win the Saratoga Derby in the race right after the Hopeful. Despite being burdened with the highweight of 127 pounds, including jockey Gene Hildebrand, Tanya won easily, the chart of the race revealing: "Tanya, away running, indulged her stable companion [Rose of Dawn] with the lead to the far turn, where she ran to the front and easily held her advantage to the end." Among the beaten that afternoon was Agile, who would go on at three to win the Kentucky Derby. The New York Times was positively ebullient in its praise of her performance, stating her performance "caused horsemen to revise opinions formed when Sysonby, of the James R. Keene stable, was fresh from his triumph in the Saratoga Special. Even the enthusiasts among Sysonby's admirers now are willing to admit that Tanya is the Keene colt's most formidable rival." Only one other filly has ever completed the Spinaway–Hopeful Stakes double, that being Idle Hour Farm's Bee Mac in 1943.
That was high praise indeed, as Sysonby was undefeated on the season and the overwhelming favorite for the upcoming Futurity Stakes, the most important 2-year-old event on the calendar. Then there was Tanya's stablemate, Artful, who had lost her first two races only because Duryea and Rogers had declared to win with the other part of their entry. It had been noted that Artful had been hard held in her "losses," and that her connections were as confident about her chances in the Futurity as they were of Tanya's chances. Adding even more spice to the field was another unbeaten, Sydney Paget's swift filly Tradition. Agile and Belle Strome were also among the participants.
Sixteen colts and fillies went to the post that afternoon for the six-furlong contest at Sheepshead Bay. Sysonby, Tanya, and Tradition were all unbeaten. Sysonby and Tradition were co-highweights at 127 pounds with Tanya next at 124, while Artful and another stablemate, Rose of Dawn, were the lightweights at 114 pounds. For the public and the press, Sysonby was considered a mortal lock. Yet Sysonby, starting from the far outside, broke sideways and failed to get into a comfortable stride early. He was not able to pull away to a comfortable lead as he usually did. He had no answer when Artful challenged and finally succumbed to the hard-charging Tradition to finish a nose behind her in third. Tanya ran a good race, but tired badly after hitting the stretch and was eased to finish fourth.
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Tanya, Sysonby, and Tradition met the first defeats of their careers that afternoon. Sysonby was never to be beaten again, nor was Artful. It later transpired that Sysonby had been drugged by his groom, having been paid to betray the colt in his care for nefarious betting purposes. Tanya, after her arduous run, was through for the year. She was the runaway leader for the championship of her division before the Futurity, but afterward, Artful won two more races, including a world record run of 1:08 under 130 pounds in the White Plains Handicap. Artiful successfully earned her way into championship consideration, resulting in Tanya sharing championship honors with her stable companion.
Throughout 1904, the estate of William Collins Whitney was being settled. As part of the settlement, his breeding stock was auctioned at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 11 and 12. Whitney's eldest son, Harry Payne Whitney, as much an enthusiast of racing as his father had been, made several purchases at the auction. Among those horses were the stallion Hamburg for $70,000 and Tanya's dam for $22,000. On Oct. 15, the racing stock went through the sales ring at Morris Park. Eager to keep Tanya and Artful running in the Whitney colors, Harry Payne Whitney acquired the two fillies for the bargain prices of $7,000 for Tanya and $10,000 for Artful. Dan M. Bowmar III, in his book Giants of the Turf, recounted the theory that prospective buyers believed the fillies were pure sprinters and would not succeed as the distances stretched out.
Both fillies were returned to Rogers to prepare for their 3-year-old seasons. Tanya's 3-year-old debut took place on May 15, 1905, at the brand-new Belmont Park, which had officially opened only 11 days earlier. Nothing like the new Belmont Park, with its sheer vastness, had ever been seen before. The new plant and its grounds covered 650 acres on the site of the old Mannice farmstead and had six courses totaling 3 ¼ miles, the main track being 1 ½ miles in circumference. There was a turf course, a steeplechase course, and a training track. Races were run in the English clockwise style. The grandstand was unparalleled for its Golden Age opulence, and the grounds were verdant green with boxwood, elm, Norway spruce, shrubs, and hedges. Train lines ran directly to the track for easy travel to and from.
The inaugural stakes on opening day was the Metropolitan Handicap, in which nearly 40,000 fans saw Sysonby and Race Time finish in a dead-heat. Tanya's turn on the new track was not as successful. In a 6 ½ furlong overnight purse, she tired to finish third after racing forwardly until the final furlong. Her performance was surely disappointing, but she had been away from the races for nearly nine months. Nonetheless, it turned out to be the perfect race to get her as fit as possible for the Belmont Stakes.
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Those who doubted Tanya's ability to stay a distance, instead of dining on the delectable dishes being served out of the Belmont Park kitchens, had to eat crow after the Belmont Stakes on May 24, 1905. A field of seven went to the post, including Withers Stakes winner Blandy and one other filly, the well-regarded Hastings filly Flinders. The race started in the middle of the backstretch of the training track; they made one turn on that course before merging onto the main track and running clockwise through the home straight to the finish. Tanya broke alertly, then dueled with Wild Mint early. When Wild Mint tired, Tanya was left alone on the lead, but the sprightly duel with Wild Mint had taken a toll. Blandy was charging furiously, gaining on the filly with every stride. The finish line came at just the right moment for the tiring filly, winning the classic by a courageous neck over her gallant rival. With the victory, Tanya joined Ruthless, the winner of the inaugural Belmont Stakes back in 1867, as the only fillies to win the Belmont. It would be another 102 years before Rags to Riches fought her way past Curlin to join the tiny sisterhood of female Belmont Stakes champions.
Tanya, Gene Hildebrand up (center), wins the Belmont Stakes on 05.24.1905Keeneland Library Hemment Collection
No one knew it at the time, but the Belmont would be the last victory of Tanya's career. On the fourth of July at Sheepshead Bay, she was one of three horses to take on Sysonby in the 1 ⅝ mile Lawrence Realization. Tanya, under jockey Lucien Lyne, performed admirably, but the reality was that the race was for second place. No one was going to beat Sysonby, but Tanya gave it a good try. The chart for the race said of her, "Tanya displayed marvelous speed and followed the winner closely for a mile and an eighth, going apparently as easily, but she tired gradually after that and finally wound up an easing up second. [She] is truly a wonderful filly and can beat anything but Sysonby."
Tackling Sysonby took more out of Tanya than was realized. Her next start, the Saratoga Handicap of 1 ¼ miles at The Spa, came against the best field she had yet faced: champion mare Beldame, champion Ort Wells, Kentucky Derby winner Alan-a-Dale, the high-class stakes winner Caughnawaga and his equally highly regarded stablemate, the filly Molly Brant, and old foe Wild Mint. Despite receiving nine to sixteen pounds to the likes of Ort Wells, Beldame, and Caughnawaga, Tanya tired badly after setting a torrid pace with Wild Mint for the first mile over the heavy going and faded to finish fifth. Beldame also failed to run her best race and finished third as Caughnawaga relished the track and charged to a two-length victory.
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The Saratoga Handicap was Tanya's last race that season. Her stablemate Artful was retired after three starts and three wins on the season. Both fillies once again shared the championship of their division. It was planned that Tanya would return to the races as a 4-year-old, but in May 1906, it was announced that Harry Payne Whitney's Classic-winning filly had bowed a tendon and would be sent to Whitney's Brookdale Stud in New Jersey to be bred. Therefore, it came as a huge surprise when she made it back to the races at five. Sadly, her championship form was long gone. She made only two starts, finishing second in the first race and last in the second before she was retired for good. During her career, Tanya started twelve times for six victories, two second-place finishes, and one third-place finish for $71,372 in earnings.
As a broodmare, Tanya became a world traveler. She remained in the United States until 1912, when she was sent to France. She returned to the United States in 1918 and produced her last living foal in 1925. Alas, Tanya was unable to pass on the qualities that made her such an exceptional racetrack performer. Despite being bred to the best stallions in America and France – Peter Pan, Broomstick, Chicle, Rock Sand, and Rabelais – Tanya's career as a producer was not as brilliant as would be hoped for a mare of her stature. She did produce three minor stakes winners and a total of six winners from eleven foals, but nothing of any exceptional quality. She produced one recorded filly who made no mark as a racer or producer, and five of her sons were gelded.
Tanya, 1926 Keeneland Library Sutcliffe Collection
It was a tragedy for breeding that all three fillies who won the "Test of the Champion" failed to live up to expectations in the breeding shed. Ruthless produced one stakes winner, another unraced colt, and horrifically, a deformed foal which was the product of an incestuous mating with her own sire. Her life ended tragically when she was shot in her paddock by a vagabond hunter. Rags to Riches produced fourteen foals, but sadly, only one colt made a name for himself as Horse of the Year in Hungary and Serbia. Tanya died in 1929 at the age of 27, but no date of death or place of burial was ever recorded, a melancholy postscript for a champion of her accomplishments. But maybe her memory will be resurrected at the newest incarnation of Belmont Park next spring, in the 159th rendition of the Belmont Stakes, the memory of the first winner of the Belmont Stakes run at the park that bears its name, a "filly in the Belmont!"
This story was originally published by Paulick Report on Jun 23, 2026, where it first appeared in the Horse Care section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
