The United Nations Stakes is a Grade I American Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds and older run over a distance of one and three-eighth miles on the turf held annually in July at Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, New Jersey. The event currently offers a purse of $600,000. History The inaugural running of the event was on 26 September 1953 at the Atlantic City Race Course in Mays Landing, New Jersey as an Invitational handicap event, The United Nations Handicap over the distance of miles. The event was named after the intergovernmental organization United Nations with the idea to promote the internationalization of the sport of horse racing whereby foreign horses bred, owned and trained would compete against each other in the US. The event attracted eight entries - four were foreign bred, including the English-bred Royal Vale and Stan, Chilean-bred Iceberg II, Irish-bred Olympic View and the others were US Bred. The first running was won in track record time of 1:55 by Iceberg II, who was trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Horatio Luro and ridden by Jorge Contreras.Later Iceberg II would be enthroned as US Champion Male Turf Horse for 1953. Within the first few years the event with its impressive stakes gave turf racing a spotlight. After his victory in 1956, Career Boy's owner Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney then decided to send his top two runners to run in the prestigious Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris, France. Entered with stablemate Fisherman and with Eddie Arcaro riding, Career Boy finished fourth in the 1956 Arc to Ribot. Career Boy's 1956 performances earned him US Champion Male Turf Horse honors. In 1957 the event was won by Round Table which was his eighth straight victory in the midst of an eleven race winning streak that landed him US Champion Male Turf Horse honors. In 1958 a crowd of 26,444 witnessed a masterful ride by the future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame jockey Bill Shoemaker who rode Clem to a new course record in 1:54 to a half length victory over Round Table who carried 130 pounds. This was the first defeat on the turf track by Round Table. Nonetheless, Round Table was crowned US Horse of the Year in 1958 even though Clem had defeated him three times during the year. In the 1959 renewal of the event Round Table was