Mill Reef Stakes

[parlo]

Hello, this is my first post on this forum and I want to start with a historic question:

Are the Mill Reef Stakes the successor of the former Imperial (Produce) Stakes?

As much as I know so far, the Mill Reef Stakes were first run in 1973 (Newbury), the Imperial Stakes were run for the last time in 1970 (Kempton Park). Both races were/are for 2yo over 6f in Mid September.

Thanks for information!

[Venusian]

Welcome Parlo, and I think you are right.

Mill Reef won the last running of the race in 1970, although I don’t think it was a produce race by then.

[graysonscolumn]

Guten Abend, Parlo, und viel Vergnügen!

gc

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[parlo]

Thank you so far! Please, what is/was the difference between an ordinary stakes race and a "produce stakes" race?

I found this in an old Ruff’s Guide to the Turf-volume:
National Stakes (Sandown), run as National Breeders’ Produce Stakes from 1889 to 1959 (Kempton Park), this race is/was for 2yo, too, run over 5f.

[Venusian]

A produce stakes is a race where entries are made when the foal is still in utero. There would then be various forfeit stages up until race day.

This is why races like the Imperial and National stakes used to have such big prize money on offer.

There also used to be Foal and Yearling stakes. You could argue that the Derby, until they started to allow supplementary entries, should really have been called The Derby Yearling Stakes.

[parlo]

Thank you for this explanation. This seems to be an ancient, but appropriate mode to raise high prize-money. The most traditional, still existing German race – the "Union-Rennen" at Cologne – was first run in 1834 and the earliest race conditions demanded entries for horses in utero, too.

The auction-races seem to be a modern version of "yearling races".

[parlo]

I discovered here:

http://groups.msn.com/BritishIrishHorse … age32.msnw

that the predecessor of the MIll Reef Stakes have been the Crookham Stakes and not the Imperial (Breeders Produce) Stakes.

[Author]

Posts