The inaugural James Rowe Memorial Handicap was won by
Battleship, a son of the legendary
Man o' War. He was bred and raced on the
flat by
Walter Salmon but who would sell the horse to
Marion duPont Scott at the end of 1931. She had Battleship trained for
steeplechase racing and in 1934 he won the
American Grand National, the most important steeplechase event in the United States. Sent to race in England, in 1938 Battleship became only the second American-bred horse to ever win the world's most prestigious steeplechase race, the
Grand National. A 1969 U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee, through 2021 Battleship remains the only horse to have won both the American and English Grand Nationals. Following the United States government's imposition of
World War II rationing, the restrictions saw all four Maryland tracks having to run their 1944 spring meets at Baltimore's
Pimlico Race Course. The April 12, 1944 Rowe Memorial, raced on a muddy track, was won by the increasingly powerful
Calumet Farm stable with their colt
Pensive who won by a head over runner-up Porter's Cap owned by
Charles S. Howard of
Seabiscuit fame. Pensive went on to win the May 6, 1944
Kentucky Derby and a week later, the May 13
Preakness Stakes. The Rowe Memorial was run for the last time on April 17, 1954. For owner
Constance Pistorio and her trainer
J. Bowes Bond, it marked their third straight win of this event. ==Records==