Stakes races like the Belmont or the Woodward stand as tributes to those who make significant contributions to horse racing.

Those family names on the events are reflective of what those Pillars of the Turf have given the sport.

Saturday at Saratoga Race Course is the Whitney Stakes.

This annual race recognizes what the family’s multiple generations of owners and breeders have given the sport in the years since William Collins Whitney bought his first Thoroughbred.

Inaugurated in 1928, the Whitney Stakes has become an annual reminder of what the name Whitney represents in the history of American racing, a tradition of excellence reflected in the Champions who have taken this rich feature.  

The Grade 1 Whitney is now a Win and You’re In Challenge Series qualifying race for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

By the time William Payne Whitney died in May 1927, more than two decades after his father, the Whitneys had become part of the sport’s elite.

The Whitney Stakes was added to Saratoga’s 1928 Stakes schedule as a tribute to the late William Payne Whitney, younger son of William Collins Whitney and owner of Greentree Stable.

They bestowed the family’s name upon a Stakes race at Saratoga, a racetrack rescued by William Collins Whitney and patronized by the family’s various stables.

The race became more than a memorial for one man.

This annual event honors the Whitney family’s role in the sport and serves as a chance for the best horses the sport has to offer to display their talent in the brightest of spotlights.

Initially open to 3-year-olds and older, the race was shortened from 1 ¼ miles to 1 1/8 miles in 1955 and then restricted to 4 -year-olds and older from 1957 to 1969 and then again starting in 2020.

The Grade 1 race became part of the Win and You’re In path to the Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2007.

Since then, five Whitney Winners have also Won the Classic, including GUN RUNNER (2017) and KNICKS GO (2021), both of whom were later named Horse of the Year.