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Middle Park Stakes

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Inaugurated
  
1866

Website
  
Newmarket

Surface
  
Turf

Race type
  
Flat / Thoroughbred

Distance
  
6f (1,207 metres)

Sponsor
  
Location
  
Rowley Mile Newmarket, England

The Middle Park Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to two-year-old colts. It is run on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket over a distance of 6 furlongs (1,207 metres), and it is scheduled to take place each year in September.

Contents

1983 middle park stakes newmarket


History

The event was founded by William Blenkiron, and it is named after his stud at Eltham. It was established in 1866, and was initially titled the Middle Park Plate. It was originally open to horses of either gender.

The race was formerly staged during Newmarket's Cambridgeshire Meeting in late September or early October. It was restricted to colts in 1987. It became part of a new fixture called Future Champions Day in 2011.

From 2015, the Middle Park Stakes was moved from Future Champions Day and brought forward two weeks, returning to the Cambridgeshire meeting, to avoid a clash with the similar Dewhurst Stakes.

The Middle Park Stakes was added to the Breeders' Cup Challenge series in 2012. The winner now earns an automatic invitation to compete in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint.

The leading horses from the Middle Park Stakes sometimes go on to compete in the following season's 2,000 Guineas. The first to win both was Prince Charlie (1871–72), and the most recent was Rodrigo de Triano (1991–92).

Records

Leading jockey (6 wins):

  • Danny Maher – Minstead (1901), Flotsam (1902), Lesbia (1907), Bayardo (1908), Lemberg (1909), Corcyra (1913)
  • Sir Gordon Richards – Medieval Knight (1933), Scottish Union (1937), Khaled (1945), The Cobbler (1947), Abernant (1948), Royal Challenger (1953)
  • Lester Piggott – Petingo (1967), Steel Heart (1974), Junius (1978), Mattaboy (1980), Cajun (1981), Diesis (1982)

    • Leading trainer (4 wins):

  • Joseph Dawson – The Rake (1866), Frivolity (1869), Prince Charlie (1871), Peter (1878)
  • John Porter – Green Sleeve (1867), Pero Gomez (1868), Friar's Balsam (1887), Orme (1891)
  • Mathew Dawson – Busybody (1883), Melton (1884), Minting (1885), Ladas (1893)
  • Peter Gilpin – Pretty Polly (1903), Flair (1905), Galvani (1906), Argos (1915)
  • Atty Persse – Stefan the Great (1918), Tetratema (1919), Portlaw (1930), Hyacinthus (1940)
  • Fred Darling – Press Gang (1929), Medieval Knight (1933), Sun Chariot (1941), The Cobbler (1947)
  • Frank Butters – Felicitation (1932), Bahram (1934), Khaled (1945), Saravan (1946)
  • Aidan O'Brien – Minardi (2000), Johannesburg (2001), Ad Valorem (2004), Crusade (2011)

    • Leading owner (6 wins):

  • HH Aga Khan III – Diophon (1923), Costaki Pasha (1928), Felicitation (1932), Bahram (1934), Khaled (1945), Buisson Ardent (1955)

    • Winners since 1965

    a Three Valleys finished first in 2003, but he was subsequently disqualified after testing positive for a banned substance.

    Earlier winners

    * The 1940 running took place at Nottingham.

    References

    Middle Park Stakes Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA