Category: Racing Festivals

Lockinge Stakes Day, which is hosted annually by Newbury Racecourse on a Saturday in May, is the most valuable fixture of the year at the Berkshire course, worth a total of £750,000 in prize money.

The highlight of the seven-race card is the Lockinge Stakes, run over a straight mile and open to horses aged four years and upwards. Inaugurated in 1958 and named after a parish in the nearby Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire, the Lockinge Stakes was initially awarded Group 2 status by the European Pattern in 1971. The race was demoted to Group 3 status in 1983, but promoted back to Group 2 status in 1995 and promoted again, to its current Group 1 status, in 1995, at which point it was restricted to horses aged four years and upwards.

 

The Lockinge Stakes is currently sponsored by Qatari-owned racing operation Al Shaqab, worth £350,000 in prize money and forms the second leg of the British Champions Series Mile Category, after the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, which is restricted to three-year-olds. The Lockinge Stakes has been won by some of the finest thoroughbreds in Europe, including Habitat in 1969, Brigadier Gerard in 1972, Kris in 1980 and, of course, Frankel – the highest rated horse in history, according to World Thoroughbred Rankings – in 2012. Sir Michael Stoute, who saddled Soviet Line to back-to-back victories in the Lockinge Stakes in 1995 and 1996, is the leading trainer in the history of the race, with a total of seven wins between 1986 and 2006.

 

The supporting card for the Locking Stakes also includes the Aston Park Stakes, sponsored since 2016 by Al Rayyan and run, for sponsorship purposes, as the Al Rayyan Stakes. In that same year, the race was promoted to Group 3 status and its distance reduced to 1 mile 4 furlongs. In 2018, the race was won by Crystal Ocean, who went on to win the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot and was only beaten a neck by stable companion Poet’s Word in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, back at Ascot the following month.

The Dante Festival, which is staged annually, on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in May, is the opening fixture of the season at York Racecourse, a.k.a. “The Knavesmire”, in North Yorkshire. The Dante Festival takes its name from the feature race, the Dante Stakes, which, in turn, is named after Dante, who won the so-called ‘New Derby’ at Newmarket, less than a month after Victory in Europe Day, in 1945.

 

The Dante Stakes, run over 1 mile 2 furlongs and 56 yards and open to three-year-old colts, geldings and fillies only, is the highlight of the second day of the Dante Festival. Currently sponsored by leading equine products provider Al Basti Equiworld, the Dante Stakes was inaugurated in 1958. The race was initially designated Group 3 status when the European Pattern Race System was introduced in 1971, but elevated to its current Group 2 status in 1980. The Dante Stakes is a recognised trial for the Derby and ten horses have won both races. The late Sir Henry Cecil, who completed the Dante Stakes/Derby double with Reference Point in 1987, remains the most successful trainer in the history of the Dante Stakes, with seven wins between 1970 and 1993.

 

The feature race on the opening day of the Dante Festival is the Musidora Stakes, run over the same course and distance as the Dante Stakes, but open to three-year-old fillies only. Inaugurated in 1961 and currently sponsored by leading international bloodstock auctioneer Tattersalls, the Musidora Stakes is, and always has been, a Group 3 contest. The Musidora Stakes is, nonetheless, a recognised trial for the Oaks and, all in all, six fillies have won both races. Once again, the late Sir Henry Cecil, who trained two of them – Diminuendo in 1988 and Reams Of Verse in 1997 – remains the most successful trainer in the history of the Musidora Stakes, with nine wine between 1985 and 2010.

 

The feature race on the third, and final, day is the Yorkshire Cup, originally established in 1927, but first run in its current guise, over 1 mile 5 furlongs and 188 yards, in 1966 and designated Group 2 status by the European Pattern Committee in 1971. Currently sponsored by Mansion Bet, the sports betting arm of online casino operator Mansion, and worth £165,000 in prize money, the Yorkshire Cup is the first race of the season in the British Champions Series Long Distance Category.

The May Festival, of which British luxury jeweller Boodles has been the title sponsor in recent years, is the opening three-day fixture of the season at Chester Racecourse, on the banks of the River Dee, in Cheshire in North West England. The May Festival, which first took place in 1766, is staged on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

 

The Wednesday, a.k.a. City Day, features the principal Derby trial of the week, the Chester Vase, and the principal Oaks trial, the Cheshire Oaks. The last Derby winner to run in the Chester Vase was Wings Of Eagles, who finished second to stable companion Our Venice Beach in 2017, while the last Oaks winner to run in the Cheshire Oaks was Forever Together, who similarly finished second to stable companion Magic Wand in 2018. Both horses were trained by Aidan O’Brien.

 

The Thursday, a.k.a. Ladies Day, features the Ormonde Stakes, run over 1 mile 5 furlongs and 84 yards and open to horses aged four years and upwards, and the Dee Stakes, run over 1 mile 2 furlongs and 70 yards and open to three-year-old colts and geldings only. The former is considered a trial for the Coronation Cup, while the latter is considered another, albeit slightly inferior, trial for the Derby.

 

The Friday, a.k.a. Chester Cup Day, is mainly about the highest profile, and most valuable, race of the week, the Chester Cup, a heritage handicap run over 2 miles 2 furlongs and 147 yards, open to horses aged four years and upwards and worth £154,000 in prize money. However, on the supporting card, the Huxley Stakes, run over the same course and distance as the Dee Stakes, but open to horses aged four years and upwards, was elevated to Group 2 status by the European Pattern Committee in 2018 and received a 66% increase in prize money, to £125,000.

After a flurry of activity at the end of the National Hunt season, notably the Cheltenham Festival in March and the Aintree Grand National Festival in April, by the time May rolls around it’s the turn of Flat racing aficionados to feel a little hot under the colour in anticipation of the first two Classic races of the season.

 

Currently sponsored by Qatari owned private investment company QIPCO, the Guineas Festival is staged annually, over a weekend in late April or early May, on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket Racecourse in Suffolk, in the East of England. The Guineas Festival features not only the 2,000 Guineas and the 1,000 Guineas – which, together with the Derby, Oaks and St.Leger, comprise the five British Classic races – but a full supporting card which, in 2018, was worth nearly £1.7 million in prize money.

 

The feature race on the Saturday, the 2,000 Guineas, is run over a straight mile and open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. The race was first run in 1809, but wasn’t designated a “Classic” by the Jockey Club until five years later, shortly after the inaugural running of the 1,000 Guineas. The 2,000 Guineas took its name from its original prize fund, as did the 1,000 Guineas, but nowadays both races offer equal prize money of £500,000. The roll of honour for the 2,000 Guineas includes such luminaries as Brigadier Gerard (1972), Dancing Brave (1986), Sea The Stars (2009) and Frankel (2011), all of whom were rated 140+ by Timeform and can therefore be considered some of the greatest racehorses since that venerable institution published its first “Racehorses” annual, in 1948.

 

The feature race on the Sunday, the 1,000 Guineas, is run over the same course and distance as the 2,000 Guineas, but open to three-year-old thoroughbred fillies only. One of the most remarkable winners in the history of 1,000 Guineas was Sceptre who, in 1902, won the race 48 hours after winning the 2,000 Guineas and later finished fourth in the Derby before winning the Oaks and the St. Leger.