Isabel Dodge Sloane

Who was Isabel Dodge Sloane?

Isabel Cleves Dodge Sloane was an American heiress and socialite who owned a major Thoroughbred horse racing stable and breeding farm.

Isabel Dodge was the second of three children of Canadian-born Ivy Hawkins and John F. Dodge, the co-founder of the Dodge Brothers Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan. Her mother died of tuberculosis when she was six and she was raised by two stepmothers and a series of nannys. Educated at Detroit's exclusive Liggett School for Girls, her family's great wealth brought her in contact with America's social elite and in 1921 she married Manhattan stockbroker, George Sloane.

Fond of a variety of sports, Isabel Dodge Sloane played golf and tennis and enjoyed fly fishing and game bird hunting. She and her husband were listed on the New York Social Register and attended Thoroughbred flat races at Belmont Park. However, it was in steeplechase racing that Isabel Dodge Sloane first became involved as an owner and in 1924 she won her first race under the name Brookmeade Stable. Although she would become a major figure in flat racing, Mrs. Sloane continued to own and compete in steeplechase events for the rest of her life and her gelding His Boots twice won the most prestigious steeplechase race in the U.S., the American Grand National. Her half-sister, Frances Dodge, was also heavily involved in horse racing and breeding and owned the renowned Castleton Farm near Lexington, Kentucky.²