Ari’s Mona Kentucky Oaks Trophy Acquisition

The Kentucky Derby Museum recently acquired the trophy awarded to 1950 Kentucky Oaks champion Ari’s Mona.

Ari’s Mona holds the Oaks event record at the 1 1/16 mile length with a time of 1:43.60, tied by Sweet Alliance in 1977. The filly finished her career with 10 wins, 10 places and six shows in 65 starts, earning a career total $56,390.

Wondring placed second in the race, followed by Diamond Lane. The Oaks switched to the current 1 1/8 mile format in 1982.

Owned, trained and bred by John C. Hauer, the win was one of the first for jockey Bill Boland, who was just 16 at the time. Boland also road Middleground to victory in the 1950 Kentucky Derby and nearly won the Triple Crown after finishing second in the Preakness and winning the Belmont. He is one of just seven jockeys to win the Oaks and Derby in the same year.

Boland won the 1966 Belmont on top of Amberoid and received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1959, awarded to the jockey who demonstrates high standards of personal and professional conduct. He was inducted into the United States Racing Hall of Fame in 2006 with 2,049 career wins on 17,233 mounts from 1949-1969.

Here's a video with more information from our Curator, Chris Goodlett: