This lot features a pair of championship horse-racing trophies won in the late ‘80s at the New York Racing Association’s Saratoga Race Course: The Ballerina Stakes and the Jim Dandy Stakes. The Ballerina Stakes is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race open to fillies and mares, ages three and up, and run over a distance of seven furlongs, while the Jim Dandy Stakes is a Grade II race has been held annually since 1964 and is open to horses aged three and run over a dirt track for one-and-one-eighth-miles.
The first trophy is from the 1986 Ballerina Stakes, which was won by Eugene V. Klein’s “Gene’s Lady.” The two-handled silver trophy with its removable top stands 14 inches tall and stretches 8.5 inches across. The sculpted horse and rider at the top has broken off but is still present within the lot. It is hallmarked "LUANCSENC SILVER" at the outer bottom and weighs just under two pounds (820 grams to be exact).
The second trophy, hallmarked sterling silver, is a triple-handled beauty that can hold up to eight pints, stands 14.5 inches tall and measures 10 inches across at its furthest distance. It weighs 4.5 pounds (2,064 grams to be exact). The front of the beautifully designed trophy is engraved with the following text: “New York Racing Association, The Jim Dandy, SARATOGA 1989, Won by Eugene V. Klein’s Is It True.” The latter trophy was designed by Mark J. Scearce out of Shelbyville, Kentucky, and is copied from an original that was
made in Kentucky about the year 1795.
Includes Letter of Provenance from the San Diego Hall of Champions.