Imp by Gean Smith, National Museum of Racing Collection. Used with permission.
On June 17, 1899, the Suburban Handicap was won, in its 16th running, for the first time by a filly or mare. She set a stakes record (2:04 4/5), and she won by two lengths, in a field of 13. Her name was Imp.
Imp was bred in Ohio by Daniel R. Harness, the man who owned her throughout her life; in fact, Imp outlived Harness by seven years. Her win in the Suburban, when she was five, brought a “deluge” of offers to Harness; according to Eliza McGraw in Women of the Year: Ten Fillies Who Achieved Horse Racing’s Highest Honor, the Thoroughbred Record quoted Harness’s response: “’I am an old man and there is no pocket in a shroud. Imp is all I want.’”
Brooklyn Backstretch 