Bougainvillea Handicap


The Bougainvillea Handicap was a Thoroughbred horse race run between 1940 and 2001 at Hialeah Park in Hialeah, Florida. A race for horses age three and older, it was run at a distance of 1 1/8 miles on turf. The race was named for the purple bougainvillea flower which is an integral part of the track's floral blueprint.

History

The inaugural running in 1940 was won by William F. Mannagh's Liberty Flight. Sent off by the betting public at odds of more than 10:1, he was the of the seven starters. In a rare occurrence, the second-place finisher High One had the second longest odds and third-place finisher Dunade had the third longest odds. Armor Bearer, the betting favorite, finished last.
In 1964, Parka set a new course record of 1:53 4/5 in winning the Bougainvillea Handicap. He returned to Hialeah the following year to win the race again in exactly the same time.
In 1970, Secretariat's Hall of Fame jockey Ron Turcotte aboard Vent du Nord became the only jockey to ever win the "Hialeah Turf Series", three races consisting of the Palm Beach, Bougainvillea and Hialeah Turf Cup Handicaps.
In 1973 the Graded stakes race system was recorded for the first time in the United States. The February 10, 1973 edition of the Bougainvillea Handicap was awarded Grade 2 status. This historical event was won by Gleaming, owned by the renowned Calumet Farm of Lexington, Kentucky.
The final running of the Bougainville Handicap took place on March 31, 2001 and was won by Make No Mistake, owned by Walter Haefner's Moyglare Stud Farm.

Records

Speed record:
Most wins:
Most wins by a jockey:
Most wins by a trainer:
Most wins by an owner: