Metropolitan Handicap
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The Metropolitan Handicap is an American Grade I stakes race for Thoroughbred horses of either gender three-years-old and above. The race is run at Belmont Park for a $600,000 purse (with $450,000 given to the winner); its one-mile distance has earned it in the moniker the "Met Mile." The Met Mile is the first of three races in the New York Handicap Triple Crown Series, followed by the Suburban Handicap and Brooklyn Handicap.
The Met Mile was first run in 1891 at Morris Park; prior to 1897, it was run at 1-1/8 mile. In 1904, its location was moved to Belmont Park. There it remained but for nine years—1960 to 1967, 1969, and 1975—when Aqueduct Racetrack hosted the event. It was not run in 1895, 1911, and 1912.
Devil Diver is the only three-time winner in the 1943, 1944, and 1945 runnings. Five other horses have triumphed in the Met Mile twice: Gulch (1987, 1988); Forego (1976, 1977); Stymie (1947, 1948); Equipoise (1932, 1933); and Mad Hatter (1921, 1922). Equipoise also finished first in 1934, but was disqualified.
The race later became part of the Broadway play "Three Men on a Horse."
[edit] Past winners
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