In outlining a six-race championship series for 3-year-olds that will include the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, Travers Stakes, as well as a new championship race for sophomores, executives from Churchill Downs Inc. and the New York Racing Association expressed hope that the new series built around racing’s glamor division will draw more attention to the sport.

Of all the horses that have made their mark at Saratoga over the course of the racetrack’s 150-plus years of horse racing, one horse became synonymous with the historic upstate New York venue more than any other.