William Woodward

William Woodward, (born April 7, 1876, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Sept. 26, 1953, New York City), American banker and an influential breeder, owner, and racer of horses.

Woodward was educated at Groton School, Groton, Mass., and Harvard College and, upon graduation from Harvard Law School in 1901, became secretary to Joseph H. Choate, U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James. In 1903 he returned to New York to join the Hanover Bank, where he became vice president in 1904 and president in 1910. He also became a member of the first Federal Reserve Board in 1914 and, from 1927 to 1929, was president of the New York Clearing House. Thereafter, he served as board chairman of Central Hanover Bank and Trust Company but retired in 1933 to devote his time to his stud farm and Thoroughbred nursery, Belair, near Annapolis, Md., where the first English Thoroughbred racehorses imported into Maryland had been bred. At Belair, with the help of the outstanding trainer James (“Sunny Jim”) Fitzsimmons, he bred two winners of the U.S. Triple Crown: Gallant Fox, who captured the three events in 1930, and Gallant Fox’s colt Omaha, who won in 1935. Among his other successful horses were Happy Gal, Faireno, Granville, Vagrancy, and Nashua. In 1939 Woodward’s horse Johnstown won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes. Woodward also entered horses in the English classic races. Every year he sent some of his yearling foals to his English trainer Cecil Boyd-Rochfort. Among his winners in the English classic races were Boswell, 1936, the Saint Leger; Black Tarquin, 1948, the Saint Leger; Hycilla, 1944, the Oaks; and Flares, 1938, the Ascot Gold Cup.

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A member of the U.S. Jockey Club from 1917, Woodward served as chairman of the board of stewards from 1930 until 1950. During his chairmanship horse racing turned from a questionable gambling operation into a major spectator sport.