King’s Stand Stakes

The King’s Stand Stakes is an event with quite some history, as it was inaugurated in 1860 when the winner was Queen of the Vale. It’s a Group one race suited to horses three years old and upwards. The race is a brisk 5 furlongs in length and is held at Ascot in June of each year, on the first day of the Royal Ascot meeting.

The race has curious beginnings having been born out of the fact that bad weather at Ascot in 1860 made it impossible to run the Royal Stand Plate (a two mile race). As such a shorter alternative took place, which subsequently became an important sprint, and highlight for many. It was initially named the Queen Stand Stakes and was renamed the King’s Stand Stakes upon the death of the Queen and accession of King Edward VII.

As with many other big races, the King’s Stand Stakes worked its way into a group of races, in this case the new international race series, the Global Sprint Challenge, in 2005. It remains part of this series to this day and this has resulted in it attracting the cream of the crop of racing talent.

While a miriad of horses have achieved two wins in the race, we still wait to this day for a horse to make it third time lucky. Leading jockey in the King’s Stand Stakes is Lester Piggott with 7 wins, and leading trainer Vince O’Brien with 5 wins. The 2018 winner at odds of 6-1 was Blue Point ridden by William Buick and trained by Charlie Appleby.