On a late summer evening in 1868, an agreement among sportsmen to stage a special race to commemorate a memorable occasion became the foundation for the middle jewel of racing's Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes.

Governor Oden Bowie of Maryland, a horseman and racing entrepreneur, was among the distinguished roster of guests at an elegant dinner party after the races at the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga given by Milton H. Sanford, who had gained much of his wealth selling blankets during the Civil War.

John Hunter of New York proposed that the feast be commemorated by a stakes race to be run in the fall of 1870 for three-year old colts and fillies at two miles, to be known as the Dinner Party Stakes in honor of the evening. Bowie electrified the gathering by suggesting a purse of $15,000, a staggering sum in those days.    See it this year on May 21st.