Garden State Park Gardenia Stakes

The Gardenia Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually during the second week of November. Created in 1955 at Garden State Park Racetrack in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, the 1¹/16 mile event was the world's richest race for two-year-old fillies, offering a total purse of US$130,300 in its inaugural year. The race was the counterpart to the Garden State Futurity for two-year-old male horses.

In the early 1970s, growing competition from Keystone Racetrack in nearby Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania caused a sharp decline in revenues at Garden State Park which resulted in cancellation of the 1973 fall racing season. A fire destroyed the racetrack on April 14, 1977 and the Gardenia Stakes was shifted to the Meadowlands Racetrack at East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Winners

* † Romanita finished first, but was disqualified and set back to third.

References

• October 21, 1956 New York Times article on the 1956 Gardenia Stakes
• Garden State Park racetrack story at Sports Illustrated