inaugurated in 1967 at atlantic city race course, the race was run on dirt from 1967 to 1978 and again in 1983. run at miles from 1967 through 1996, the race was moved to monmouth park in 1997. until 2004, it was known as the matchmaker handicap and was run in mid june until being made part of the haskell invitational day held on the first sunday in august.