Omaha

The race Omaha lost in England is the one remembered. At Royal Ascot on June 18, 1936, he started the 11-to-8 favorite in the Gold Cup, so agitated beforehand that he nearly unseated his jockey, Pat Beasley, and was beaten a short head by Quashed, a filly who had won the Oaks in 1935. The Observer later called it the greatest race of all time. On July 2 he lost the Princess of Wales's Stakes at Newmarket by a neck under extra weight, his last race in England. The racing Hall of Fame took him in 1965.

What the plaque says

Omaha Buried here at Ak-Sar-Ben is Omaha, one of the immortals of the American turf. His sire Gallant Fox was the 1930 winner of the Triple Crown, and Omaha succeeded him to this title in 1935. To win the Triple Crown a three-year-old must win the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes. They are the only father-son combination to achieve this honor. Omaha was foaled March 24, 1932, at Claiborne Breeding Farm in Paris, Kentucky. He was owned by William G. Woodward's famed Belair Stud. The chestnut colt was out of Flambino by Wrack, standing 16.3 hands and weighing 1,300 pounds in his prime. He was trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons and ridden in his great American races by William "Smokey" Saunders. As a four-year-old Omaha was shipped to England where he won the Victor Wild Stakes and the Queen's Plate. Omaha was retired to stud after his fourth season. In 1950 he was brought to Nebraska by breeders interested in improving Nebraska thoroughbreds. He was taken to the Grove Porter Farm near Nebraska City where he lived until his death on April 24, 1959. He was buried here by special invitation from Ak-Sar-Ben in honor of the great place he had earned in the annals of American racing. Betti Richard, an internationally known sculptor, fashioned the life- like bronze figure of Omaha which marks the grave. Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Joslyn Art Museum — 3.9 mi
  Omaha's free art museum, a 1931 Art Deco memorial with two modern pavilions, and the keeper of Karl Bodmer's watercolors from the upper Missouri in 1833 and 1834.
• Malcolm X Birthsite — 4.5 mi
  The North Omaha lot where Malcolm Little was born in May 1925 and his family was driven out by the Klan, saved by Rowena Moore and now planned as a cultural center.
• The Durham Museum (Omaha Union Station) — 4.6 mi
  Omaha's 1931 Union Station, Gilbert Stanley Underwood's Art Deco depot for the Union Pacific, closed to trains in 1971 and kept as a city museum with its waiting room intact.
• Winter Quarters and the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery — 7.2 mi
  The Latter-day Saint camp of 1846 to 1848 on Omaha land in what is now Florence, where hundreds died the first winter, and the cemetery and trail center beside it.

More markers nearby

• Ak-Sar-Ben Field and the U.S. Air Mail — 0.6 mi
• Poynter Hall — 2.3 mi
• George and Sarah Joslyn Home — 2.7 mi
• Duchesne Academy — 3.2 mi