August Belmont Sr. (born August Schönberg; December 8, 1813November 24, 1890) was a German-American financier, diplomat, politician and party chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and also a horse-breeder and racehorse owner. He was the founder and namesake of the Belmont Stakes, third leg of the Triple Crown series of American Thoroughbred horse racing. Early life He was born to a Jewish family in the Rhenish Hessian town of Alzey on December 8, 1813. At that time, Alzey was in the Mont-Tonnerre department of the French Empire, but it is now part of Germany. His parents were Simon Belmont (French for 'beautiful mountain', in German it is Schönberg) and his wife, Frederika Elsass. His family had Sephardic roots, tracing back to the town of Belmonte, Portugal. After his mother's death when he was seven years old, he lived with his uncle and grandmother in the German financial capital of Frankfurt am Main ("Frankfurt on the Main River"). Belmont attended the Philanthropin, a Jewish school in Frankfurt, until he began his first job as an apprentice to the Rothschild banking firm in Frankfurt. He would sweep floors, polish furniture and run errands while studying English, arithmetic and writing. He was promoted to confidential clerk in 1832 and later traveled to Naples, Paris and Rome. Career In 1837, at the age of 24, Belmont set sail for the Spanish colony of Cuba and its capital city of Havana, charged with the Rothschilds' Cuban interests. On his way to Havana, Belmont stopped in New York City on a layover. He arrived in the previously prospering United States during the first waves of the financial/economic recession of the Panic of 1837, shortly after the end of the iconic two-term administration of President Andrew Jackson, the nation's first Democratic administration. Instead of continuing on to Havana, however, Belmont remained in New York to supervise the jeopardized Rothschild financial interests in America, whose New York agent had filed for bankruptcy. August Belmont & Company In the financial/economic recession and Panic of 1837, hundreds of American businesses, including the Rothschild family's American agent in New York City, collapsed. As a result, Belmont postponed his departure for Havana indefinitely and began a new firm, August Belmont & Company, believing that he could supplant the recently bankrupt firm, the American Agency. August Belmont & Company was an instant success, and Belmont restored health to the Rothschilds' U.S. interests over