imported>Xavier Newcombe: /* References */ change category from horse trainer to racehorse trainer

2024-12-29T20:31:26Z

References: change category from horse trainer to racehorse trainer

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{{more footnotes|date=December 2011}}
{{Infobox horseracing personality
|name = Sam Hildreth
|image= Hildreth, Sam C. 1910.jpg
|caption = Sam Hildreth, 1910
|occupation = [[Horse trainer|Trainer]]
|birth_place = [[Independence, Missouri]], United States
|birth_date = May 16, 1866
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1929|9|24|1866|5|16}}
|career wins = Not found
|race = [[Bowie Handicap (Pimlico)|Bowie Handicap]] (1909, 1911, 1915, 1920) [[Brooklyn Handicap]] (1909, 1910, 1916, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1924) [[Metropolitan Handicap]] (1909, 1915, 1921, 1922, 1923) [[Suburban Handicap]] (1909, 1915, 1916, 1923, 1924) [[Travers Stakes]] (1910, 1922) [[Jockey Club Gold Cup]] (1919, 1921, 1922)
'''[[American Classic Races|American Classic Race]] wins:''' [[Belmont Stakes]] (1899, 1909, 1916, 1917, 1921, 1923, 1924)
|awards = [[United States Champion Thoroughbred Trainer by wins|
United States Champion trainer by wins]] (1921, 1927) [[United States Champion Thoroughbred Trainer by earnings|United States Champion trainer by earnings]] (1909, 1910, 1911, 1916, 1917 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924) [[United States Leading Thoroughbred owner by earnings|U.S. Leading Thoroughbred owner by earnings]] (1909, 1910, 1911)
|honors = [[National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame|United States' Racing Hall of Fame]] (1955) [[Fair Grounds Racing Hall of Fame]] (1971)
|horses = [[Jean Bereaud]], [[Fitz Herbert]], [[King James (horse)|King James]], [[Novelty (horse)|Novelty]], [[Dalmatian (horse)|Dalmatian]], [[Friar Rock]], [[Hourless]], [[Mad Hatter (horse)|Mad Hatter]], [[Mahubah]], [[Purchase (horse)|Purchase]], [[Grey Lag]], [[Zev (horse)|Zev]], [[Mad Play]]
|updated = September 26, 2007
}}
'''Samuel Clay Hildreth''' (May 16, 1866 – September 24, 1929) was an American [[Thoroughbred horse race|Thoroughbred horse racing]] [[National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame|Hall of Fame]] [[horse trainer|trainer]] and owner.<ref>[https://www.racingmuseum.org/hall-of-fame/samuel-c-hildreth Samuel C. Hildreth at the United States' National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame] Retrieved July 22, 2017</ref>

==Biography==
Born in [[Independence, Missouri]], Sam Hildreth began his training career in 1887, competing at racetracks in the [[Midwestern United States]] with such horses as the good racemare [[Hurley Burley]], the dam of [[Burgomaster (horse)|Burgomaster]]. In 1898 he moved to New York City where thoroughbred racing was a leading sport offering the largest purses. He was first hired to train horses owned by wealthy businessman [[William Collins Whitney]], but soon set out on his own, buying horses for himself and training for others. He won his first of seven [[Belmont Stakes]] in 1899 with the horse [[Jean Bereaud]] for owner [[Sydney Paget]].

By the turn of the 20th century, Samuel Hildreth had expanded his [[New York (state)|New York]] operations and owned the largest racing stables at the [[Fair Grounds Race Course]] in [[New Orleans]]. That year, he appointed former [[outlaw]] [[Frank James]] as his betting commissioner at the track. Among the horses Hildreth owned was [[Fitz Herbert]] (b. 1906) who won the [[Brooklyn Handicap]], [[Suburban Handicap]], and the [[Jerome Handicap]] en route to being voted the [[Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year|Horse of the Year]] in 1909, and again in 1910. Another of his horses, [[King James (horse)|King James]], won other important races in 1909, including the [[Metropolitan Handicap]], Sheepshead Bay Handicap, and the California Handicap, and went on to win the Brooklyn Handicap in 1910. In 1909, Hildreth also won his second Belmont Stakes with his own horse, [[Joe Maddon]], and went on to capture the first of three consecutive leading owner and trainer honors in the United States.

The [[Hart–Agnew Law]] which banned [[parimutuel betting]] was passed by the [[New York Legislature]] and resulted in the closure of all New York racetracks between 1911 and 1912. Hildreth and numerous other racing stables went to race in Canada where he won the 1911 [[Windsor Hotel Cup Handicap]] at [[Blue Bonnets (raceway)|Blue Bonnets Raceway]] in [[Montreal]]. On November 2, 1911, the ''[[New York Times]]'' reported that Sam Hildreth and [[jockey]] [[Carroll H. Shilling|Carroll Shilling]] had sailed to England aboard the [[RMS Mauretania (1906)|RMS Mauretania]] with the intent of racing there for the stable of American owner, [[Charles Kohler]]. However, Kohler subsequently set up operations in France and in 1912 Sam Hildreth trained a stable of horses for him at [[Val-d'Oise]], near Paris.

Sam Hildreth's stable trained for other prominent owners such as [[August Belmont Jr.]] for whom he won back-to-back Belmont Stakes in 1916 and 1917. He also met with great success training for [[Rancocas Stable]] owned by wealthy [[oil]] industrialist [[Harry F. Sinclair]]. For Sinclair he won three Belmont Stakes with [[Grey Lag]] in 1921, [[Zev (horse)|Zev]] in 1923 and [[Mad Play]] in 1924. In an era before the [[Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing|Triple Crown]] had any significance, Hildreth only entered a few horses in the [[Kentucky Derby]] because of the time restraints for the long journey to [[Kentucky]]. As such, [[David J. Leary]] is listed as the trainer of Zev for his win in the 1923 [[Kentucky Derby]]. Back in New York, in October of that year, Zev defeated [[Epsom Derby]] winner [[Papyrus (horse)|Papyrus]], marking the first time a Kentucky Derby winner defeated an English Derby winner.

Twice Sam Hildreth won more races in a year than any other trainer in the United States and was the top money-earning trainer nine times, a record that stood for more than sixty years until broken by [[D. Wayne Lukas]] in 1992. Hildreth's seven Belmont Stakes victories ranks him second only to [[James G. Rowe Sr.]] and five times his horses were chosen [[American Horse of the Year]], the highest honor in thoroughbred horse racing.

In 1925, Hildreth co-wrote an article with [[James R. Crowell]] titled "Down the Stretch" for ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]''. The two then collaborated on a history of American racing in a book titled "''The Spell of the Turf''" published in 1926 by [[J. B. Lippincott & Co.]] of [[Philadelphia]]. In this book, he named [[Purchase (horse)|Purchase]] as one of the greatest horses he ever trained.

After forty-three years as a horse trainer, Sam Hildreth died at a hospital in [[Manhattan, New York]] following an unsuccessful operation for an intestinal disorder. He was buried in [[Greenridge Cemetery]], [[Saratoga Springs, New York]].

In 1955, Sam Hildreth was posthumously inducted into the newly formed [[National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame]].

==References==
{{reflist}}
* Hildreth, Samuel C. and Crowell, James R. ''The Spell of the Turf: The Story of American Racing'' (1926) Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott & Co.
* [[Edward L. Bowen|Bowen, Edward L.]] ''[[Masters of the Turf|Masters of the Turf: Ten Trainers Who Dominated Horse Racing's Golden Age]]'' (2007) Eclipse Press ({{ISBN|978-1581501490}})

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hildreth, Samuel Clay}}
[[Category:1866 births]]
[[Category:1929 deaths]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from Independence, Missouri]]
[[Category:American racehorse trainers]]
[[Category:American racehorse owners and breeders]]
[[Category:United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:Burials at Greenridge Cemetery]]

Sam Hildreth - Revision history

imported>Xavier Newcombe: /* References */ change category from horse trainer to racehorse trainer