| Class: | Discontinued stakes race |
| Horse Race: | Rowe Memorial Handicap |
| Inaugurated: | 1930 |
| Race Type: | Thoroughbred - Flat racing |
| Distance: | 6 furlongs |
| Surface: | Dirt |
| Track: | left-handed |
| Qualification: | Three-year-olds & up |
| Purse: | $10,000 |
The Rowe Memorial Handicap was an American Thoroughbred horse race run between 1930 and 1954 at Bowie Race Track in Bowie, Maryland. A six furlong sprint run on dirt, the event was open to horses age three and older.
First run on April 5, 1930, the race was originally named to honor James Rowe, a widely respected trainer and future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee who had died in 1929.[1] However, his son James Jr., who had successfully followed in his father's footsteps, died from a heart attack in 1931 at age forty-two and the race name would be shortened to the "Rowe Memorial" to honor both men.
The inaugural James Rowe Memorial Handicap was won by Battleship, a son of the legendary Man o' War. [2] He was bred and raced on the flat by Walter Salmon but who would sell the horse to Marion duPont Scott at the end of 1931. She had Battleship trained for steeplechase racing and in 1934 he won the American Grand National, the most important steeplechase event in the United States. Sent to race in England, in 1938 Battleship became only the second American-bred horse to ever win the world's most prestigious steeplechase race, the Grand National. A 1969 U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee, through 2021 Battleship remains the only horse to have won both the American and English Grand Nationals. [3] [4]
Following the United States government's imposition of World War II rationing, the restrictions saw all four Maryland tracks having to run their 1944 spring meets at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course. The April 12, 1944 Rowe Memorial, raced on a muddy track, was won by the increasingly powerful Calumet Farm stable with their colt Pensive who won by a head over runner-up Porter's Cap owned by Charles S. Howard of Seabiscuit fame.[5] Pensive went on to win the May 6, 1944 Kentucky Derby and a week later, the May 13 Preakness Stakes.[6] [7]
The Rowe Memorial was run for the last time on April 17, 1954. For owner Constance Pistorio and her trainer J. Bowes Bond, it marked their third straight win of this event.[8] [9]
Speed record:
Most wins:
Most wins by a jockey:
Most wins by a trainer:
Most wins by an owner:
| Year | Winner | Age | Jockey | Trainer | Owner | Dist. (furlongs) | Time | Win $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | Brazen Brat | 6 | Nick Shuk | J. Bowes Bond | Constance Pistorio | 6 f | 1:11.40 | $7,100 |
| 1953 | Tuscany | 5 | Nick Shuk | J. Bowes Bond | Constance Pistorio | 6 f | 1:11.00 | $7,700 |
| 1952 | Tuscany | 4 | Sam Boulmetis | J. Bowes Bond | Constance Pistorio | 6 f | 1:11.60 | $7,480 |
| 1951 | Call Over | 4 | Robert J. Martin | Edward J. Yowell | Bedford Stable | 6 f | 1:12.00 | $5,395 |
| 1950 | The Pincher | 4 | Ronnie Nash | George Mohr | Henry H. Hecht | 6 f | 1:11.80 | $6,275 |
| 1949 | Nearway | 4 | Nunzio Pariso | Thomas H. Heard Jr. | Claude C. Tanner | 6 f | 1:11.60 | $7,600 |
| 1948 | Repand | 4 | Logan Batcheller | James J. Rowan | Sylvester W. Labrot Jr. | 6 f | 1:13.80 | $8,175 |
| 1947 | Scholarship | 5 | Jack Westrope | Kenneth L. W. Force Jr. | George G. Gilbert Jr. | 6 f | 1:13.40 | $7,175 |
| 1946 | Swiv | 6 | Arnold Kirkland | Leo G. O'Donnell | Harold C. Genter | 6 f | 1:12.00 | $6,375 |
| 1945 | Harford | 5 | Carson Kirk | Phillip Brady | Ruth McClanaghan | 6 f | 1:13.00 | $3,200 |
| 1944 | Pensive | 3 | Conn McCreary | Ben A. Jones | Calumet Farm | 6 f | 1:15.00 | $6,375 |
| 1943 | align=center colspan=8 | Race not held | ||||||
| 1942 | Cape Cod | 4 | George Woolf | Raymond B. Archer | Grover C. Greer Jr. | 6 f | 1:12.60 | $4,600 |
| 1941 | Omission | 3 | Don Meade | J. P. "Sammy" Smith | Victor Emanuel | 6 f | 1:14.00 | $4,225 |
| 1940 | Honey Cloud | 6 | Danny Driscoll | Albert J. Abel | Dorothy Abel | 6 f | 1:11.80 | $4,175 |
| 1939 | Rough Time | 5 | Hilton Dabson | J. Yancey Christmas | J. Yancey Christmas | 6 f | 1:13.20 | $4,575 |
| 1938 | Sun Egret | 3 | Alfred Shelhamer | H. Guy Bedwell | A. C. Compton | 6 f | 1:13.80 | $4,250 |
| 1937 | Mucho Gusto | 5 | Jack Westrope | Robert F. Curran | Araho Stable (Mr. & Mrs. Walter O'Hara) | 6 f | 1:13.60 | $4,125 |
| 1936 | Bright Light | 3 | Harry Richards | John J. Greely Jr. | Shandon Farm Stables (Patrick A. & Richard J. Nash) | 6 f | 1:14.00 | $2,770 |
| 1935 | Good Harvest | 3 | Silvio Coucci | Hirsch Jacobs | B B Stable (Isidor Bieber) | 6 f | 1:13.80 | $2,530 |
| 1934 | Soon Over | 3 | Silvio Coucci | William Brennan | Greentree Stable | 6 f | 1:13.00 | $2,900 |
| 1933 | align=center colspan=8 | Race not held | ||||||
| 1932 | Towee | 3 | John Bejshak | Joseph H. Stotler | Sagamore Farm Stable | 6 f | 1:13.00 | $3,480 |
| 1931 | Mynheer | 3 | Arthur Robertson | William E. Caskey Jr. | William E. Caskey Jr. | 7 f | 1:26.20 | $3,390 |
| 1930 | Battleship | 3 | Louis Schaefer | John R. "Jack" Pryce | Walter J. Salmon Sr. | 7 f | 1:27.00 | $3,380 |