Author: G C

The Goodwood Festival – popularly known as ‘Glorious Goodwood’, which also avoids confusion with the motorsport event known as the ‘Goodwood Festival of Speed’ – is a five-day meeting staged annually, in late July or early August, at Goodwood Racecourse in West Sussex in the South of England. Goodwood Racecourse, set against the backdrop of the rolling hills of the South Downs, is widely considered one of the most beautiful racecourses in the world so, with five days of action on offer, Glorious Goodwood is a major horse racing and social event.

 

The feature race on day one, the Tuesday, is the Goodwood Cup, run over 2 miles and open to horses aged three years and upwards. Traditionally the second leg of the Stayers’ Triple Crown, between the Gold Cup and the Doncaster Cup, the Goodwood Cup became part of the British Champion Series Long Distance Category in 2011 and was promoted to Group 1 status in 2017, at which time its prize money was increased to £500,000.

 

The feature race on day two, the Sussex Stakes, is run over a mile and open to horses aged three years and upwards. It is, in fact, the first race of the season in which the three-year-olds and the older horses clash over a mile at the highest level and is, quite rightly, part of the British Champion Series Mile Category. The subject of several key head-to-head rivalries in recent years, such as that between Frankel and the defending champion, Canford Cliffs, in 2011, the Sussex Stakes is often billed, but doesn’t always necessarily deliver, as the “Duel on the Downs”. Nevertheless, with prize money of £1 million, the Sussex Stakes is one of the highlights of the British Flat racing calendar.

 

The Thursday, a.k.a. Ladies’ Day, also has a prestigious Group 1 contest as its feature race, in this case the Nassau Stakes, run over 1 mile 1 furlong and 197 yards and open to fillies and mares aged three years and upwards. Worth £600,000 in prize money, The Nassau Stakes is part of the British Champion Series Fillies & Mares Category. Marginally less prestigious, but no less competitive or exciting, the feature races on Friday and Saturday, respectively, are the Group 2 King George Stakes, over 5 furlongs, and the Stewards’ Cup, over 6 furlongs.

The Ebor Festival, billed in recent years as the “Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival”, is a four-day meeting staged annually, in August, at York Racecourse in North Yorkshire in North East England. The meeting take its name from that of the feature race, the Ebor, run on the Saturday, which, in turn is an abbreviation of Eboracum, the Roman name for York.

Aside from the Ebor itself, the Ebor Festival includes a Group 1 feature race on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The Juddmonte International Stakes, run over 1 mile 2 furlongs and 56 yards and open to horses aged three years and upwards, was inaugurated, as the Benson and Hedges Cup, in 1972, but has been sponsored by Juddmonte Farms since 1989, and is now usually referred to as the Juddmonte International. With prize money in excess of £1 million, it is the most valuable race of the season run on the Knavesmire.

The Darley Yorkshire Oaks is run over 1 mile 3 furlongs and 88 yards and, nowadays, open to fillies and mares aged three years and upwards although, between its inauguration in 1849 and 1991, it was restricted to three-year-old fillies only. The race has been sponsored by Darley Stud since 2006 and now forms the final leg of the British Champions Series Fillies & Mares Category, prior to Britsh Champions Day at Ascot in October.

The Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes, run over 5 furlongs and open to horses aged two years and upwards, is one of the few races in which juveniles can compete against older rivals. That said, since 1922, just four juveniles have been successful, the most recent being Kingsgate Native in 2007. The race was inaugurated, in its current guise, in 1922, and has been sponsored by Coolmore Stud since 2007.

The Saturday centrepiece, the Ebor, is a so-called Heritage Handicap – or, in other words, one of a series of traditional, top-class handicaps, worth at least £50,000 each, run throughout the season – run over 1 mile 5 furlongs and 188 yards and open to horses aged three years and upwards. The race was inaugurated, as the Great Ebor Handicap, in 1843. Following a five-year sponsorship deal with Sky Bet, the Ebor is already worth £500,000 in prize money, making it the most valuable handicap run during the British Flat season and its prize money is set to double, to £1 million, in 2019.

Royal Ascot, which has officially been known by that title since 1911, is nowadays a five-day meeting staged annually at Ascot Racecourse, in Berkshire in South East England, in June. In 2002, to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, an extra afternoon of racing with the Queen in attendance replaced the Heath meeting, traditionally held on the Saturday following Royal Ascot.

 

Royal Ascot features six races on all five days, including eight at Group 1 level, although the Gold Cup, run on the Thursday – also known, unofficially, as Ladies’ Day – is still considered the out-and-out highlight of the week by many observers.

 

The feature race on day one is the St. James’s Palace Stakes, run over the so-called Old Mile and open to three-year-colts only. Consequently, the race is typically contested by horses that ran in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket or the Irish or French equivalent. Earlier in the day, the Royal Meeting gets underway with the Queen Anne Stakes, run over the Straight Mile and open to horses aged four years and upwards, while the King’s Stand Stakes, run over 5 furlongs and open to horses aged three years and upwards, regained its original Group 1 status in 2008.

 

The feature race on day two, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, run over 1 mile 2 furlongs and open to horses aged four years and upwards, returned to the Royal Ascot programme in 1968, before the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in 1969, and was promoted to Group 1 status in 2000. The Gold Cup, run over 2 miles 4 furlongs and open to horses aged four years and upwards, is most prestigious race of its kind run in Britain. It is, in fact, the first leg of the so-called Stayers’ Triple Crown, which also includes the Goodwood Cup and the Doncaster Cup and was famously won by Double Trigger, trained by Mark Johnston, in 1995.

 

The feature race on day four, the Coronation Stakes, is run over the Old Mile and open to three-year-old fillies only. Similarly to the St. James’s Palace Stakes on day two, the Coronation Stakes often features fillies that ran in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket or the Irish or French equivalent. In fact, in 2018, the race was won, impressively, by the Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Alpha Centauri, trained by Jessica Harrington.

 

The feature race on the fifth, and final, day is the second top-level sprint of the week, the Diamond Jubilee Stakes. Formerly the Cork & Orrery Stakes, but renamed as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002, the Diamond Jubilee Stakes is run over 6 furlongs and open to horses aged four years and upwards.

The Derby Festival, which takes place annually at Epsom Downs Racecourse, in Surrey, in South East England, requires very little introduction. The second day of the Festival, a.k.a. Derby Day, is staged on the first Saturday of June each year and, of course, features the running of the most valuable horse race in Britain, the Derby Stakes.

 

The Derby Stakes, known for sponsorship purposes as the Investec Derby, was inaugurated in 1780 and, apart from a wartime substitute, known as the ‘New Derby’, run at Newmarket, has been run at Epsom Downs ever since. Run over 1 mile 4 furlongs and 6 yards and open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies, the Derby is sometimes billed as the ‘Supreme Test of the Racehorse’. Certainly, the bends, camber and pronounced downhill gradients at Epsom Downs provide a thorough examination of inexperienced, young horses, as might be expected in the most prestigious, and valuable, of the five British Classic races. Indeed, the Derby has become synonymous with some of the greatest middle-distance racehorses of all time, including Sea Bird, Mill Reef, Shergar, Reference Point and Sea The Stars, to name but a handful.

 

Speaking of British Classic races, the opening day of the Derby Festival, a.k.a. Ladies’ Day, features the Oaks Stakes, run over the same course and distance as the Derby, but restricted to three-year-old thoroughbred fillies. The Oaks Stakes was inaugurated in 1779, a year before the Derby, and took its name from the country estate, known as Lambert’s Oaks, or simply the Oaks, occupied by its founder, Edward Smith-Stanley, 12^th Earl of Derby.

 

Also contested on Ladies’ Day is the Coronation Cup, run over the same course and distance as the Derby and the Oaks, but open to horses aged four years and upwards. The Coronation Cup was inaugurated in 1902, to mark the belated coronation of King Edward VII that year, and is often contested by horses than ran in the Derby or the Oaks in previous seasons.