10 Facts About Sam Hildreth

Samuel Clay Hildreth was an American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame trainer and owner.

Sam Hildreth 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.

Sam Hildreth won his first of seven Belmont Stakes in 1899 with the horse Jean Bereaud for owner Sydney Paget.

In 1909, Hildreth 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.

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 met with great success training for Rancocas Stable owned by wealthy oil industrialist Harry F Sinclair.

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.

In 1925, Hildreth co-wrote an article with James R Crowell titled "Down the Stretch" for The Saturday Evening Post.

Sam Hildreth 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.