William Lakeland, Preakness to be inducted into Hall of Fame

The 19th century racehorse Preakness, namesake of the second leg of the Triple Crown, and the trainer William Lakeland, whose career included wins in some of the biggest races of the late 19th century, will be inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame this year following their selection by the hall’s Historic Review Committee, the organization announced on Wednesday.

The two inductees will join Heavenly Prize, the only contemporary racehorse to be selected for induction this year, at a ceremony scheduled for Aug. 3 at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion adjacent to the Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. However, the Hall of Fame’s Pillars of the Turf Committee has been authorized to select up to a dozen new inductees for that category, which was established in 2013, and an announcement on the selections will come on May 23, the Hall said in a release.

Preakness was born in 1867, bred by R. A. Alexander of Woodburn Stud in Kentucky, and he raced for Milton H. Stanford after being purchased for $4,100 as a yearling. Unlike many horses of the time, Preakness did not debut until he was a 3-year-old, and his early career was not especially noteworthy. But he blossomed as an older horse.

In 1873, as a 6-year-old, Preakness won the Jockey Club Handicap, the Long Branch Stakes, and the Manhattan and Grand National handicaps, beating Hall of Fame inductee Harry Bassett in both of the latter races. The next year, he took the Jockey Club Handicap again, and then, in the 1875 Saratoga Cup, Preakness dead-heated for the win with Springbok, in a field that Walter Vosburgh called “the greatest field of horses that ever started for this, the most famous of all of America’s long-distance fixtures.”

Preakness raced as a 9-year-old in England and was retired after winning one race from his four starts there with a career record of 12 wins from 18 starts. The Turf and Sports Digest said at the time that “it is improbable that a more courageous, stouter, or more rugged horse, enduring, consistent and, with it all, of intense speed, ever trod an American race course.”

Lakeland, who was born in England in 1853, began his career as a jockey but moved to training “around 1877,” according to the Hall of Fame. He trained for James R. Keene and Marcus Daly, among others, and trained the champions Domino and Hamburg, both of whom have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Lakeland trained mostly on the rich New York circuit, and he took some of the most prominent races at New York tracks on multiple occasions, winning the Coney Island Handicap four times and the Futurity three times. His multiple stakes winners included Domino, Hamburg, Kimball, Bucktie, Babcock, Tea Tray, Exile, Tattler, Voter, and Electioneer. In an era in which it was not uncommon for horses to run twice in the same day, he famously saddled Little Reb for three wins on a single card. He died in 1908.