Ben Ali was the winner of the 1886 Kentucky Derby

Kentucky Derby

The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...

 and was named after his owner James Ben Ali Haggin

James Ben Ali Haggin

James Ben Ali Haggin was an Turkish Americanattorney, rancher, investor and a major owner/breeder in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing...

, a man of Turkish heritage that had struck gold in the California Gold Rush

California Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...

 of 1849. Ben Ali was foaled in Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

 and was a large bay colt sired by Virgil

Virgil (horse)

Virgil was an American thoroughbred racehorse that was bred in Kentucky by Hyman C. Gratz. He was a brown to dark bay stallion, was approximately 16 hands high and had a prominent white star on his forehead.[2] His sire, Vandal, was the second leading sire of the time, behind the great Lexington...

. His damsire was also the great Lexington

Lexington (horse)

Lexington was a United States Thoroughbred race horse who won six of his seven race starts. Perhaps his greatest fame came however as the most successful sire of the second half of the nineteenth century; he was the Leading sire in North America 16 times, and of his many brood mare and racer...

, a major foundation sire of American thoroughbreds. Ben Ali is best known for his Derby win and a wagering snafu that ushered in a bad era for the Kentucky Derby.¹

Wagering Monopoly and Boycott

In 1886, C. M. White purchased the pooling privileges (wagering rights) for the Kentucky Derby for $30,600 and demanded that all the Derby bookmakers pay him a $100 licensing fee to operate at the track.¹ The bookmakers roundly refused and, as a consequence, there were no bookies at the 1886 derby to handle high-dollar bets. Unfortunately, James Haggin could not place a large bet on his winning stallion and was so upset that he threatened to bar his entire stable from ever racing in another Kentucky Derby unless bookmakers were reinstated at the track.¹ The track director refused Haggin's demands replying, "To hell with him anyway"¹, enraging James Haggin and causing him to shun the derby in favor of other stakes races.¹ News traveled in the east coast horse racing circuits of Haggin's ill treatment in Louisville

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

 causing many Eastern

East Coast of the United States

The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...

 horsemen to boycott the Kentucky Derby during the 1890s and early 20th century.¹ Bookmakers returned for the 1887 Derby, but the field quality, and race profits, reduced dramatically over the years until Churchill Downs

Churchill Downs

Churchill Downs, located in Central Avenue in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States, is a Thoroughbred racetrack most famous for hosting the Kentucky Derby annually. It officially opened in 1875, and held the first Kentucky Derby and the first Kentucky Oaks in the same year. Churchill Downs...

 was facing closure in 1903. Churchill Downs was sold to a syndicate led by Matt Winn

Matt Winn

Colonel Martin J. "Matt" Winn was a prominent personality in American thoroughbred horse racing history and president of Churchill Downs racetrack, home to the Kentucky Derby race that he made famous....

 in 1903.

Ben Ali is reported to have died at around 20 years of age (c. 1903) at Haggin's Rancho del Paso stud in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.