Her name was Lady Suffolk.
She came from Long Island, and by 14 years old, the crowds were following her by the tens of thousands. Stephen Foster wrote a song about her. And on August 13, 1847, five thousand of her fans gathered to watch her beat an old man.
When she emerged victorious—he had tried to withdraw after suffering an injury—they likely sang Foster’s song in celebration: “The Old Grey Mare.”
Lady Suffolk was the first champion of the Saratoga Race Course, the oldest sports facility in the United States, so steadily operated that nothing but federal gambling reform (1911-12) and the second World War (1943-45) could shut it down.