Ashland Stakes

The Ashland Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually in early April at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. It and the Ashland Oaks, the Kentucky Association racetrack's predecessor race, were named for Ashland, the homestead and breeding farm of statesman Henry Clay in Lexington, Kentucky. Restricted to three-year-olds fillies the race is currently run at a distance of one and one-sixteenth miles. The race is a Grade I event with a current purse of $500,000 and has been a prep race to the Triple Tiara of Thoroughbred Racing, including the Kentucky Oaks, the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes and Mother Goose Stakes.

Part of the 1936 inaugural events for the new Keeneland Race Course, the first two editions of the Ashland Stakes were open to fillies and mares, 3-years of age and older. Not run again until 1940, it was then made a race exclusively for 3-year-old fillies. During World War II, from 1943 through 1945 the race was hosted by Churchill Downs in Louisville.

The Ashland Stakes was run in two heats in 1952, 1965, 1974 and 1980. Don Brumfield is the only jockey to ever have won both heats. In the 1974 edition, Brumfield rode to victory on Winged Wishes, a horse owned by his mother, Viola, then took the second running aboard Darby Dan Farm's, Maud Muller.

Since its inception, the Ashland Stakes has been raced at various distances:

• 1936-1937, 1981 to present :  1 ¹⁄₁₆ miles
• 1940-1973 : 6 furlongs
• 1974-1980 : 7 furlongs, 184 feet

In 2014, the Ashland finished in a Dead heat between Rosalind and Room Service.

Records

Speed record at current distance

• 1:41.60 -  1 ¹⁄₁₆ miles set by Silverbulletday in 1999.

Most wins by an owner

• 3 - Calumet Farm (1948, 1952, 1980) & Cain Hoy Stable (1957, 1959, 1963)

Most wins by a jockey

• 3 - Bill Shoemaker (1964, 1981, 1982)
• 3 - Don Brumfield (1974 (2), 1984)
• 3 - Randy Romero (1980, 1985, 1990)
• 3 - Shane Sellers (1991, 1993, 2000)

Most wins by a trainer

• 4 - Woody Stephens (1949, 1957, 1959, 1963)

Winners of the Ashland Stakes since 1969

Earlier winners

See also

• Road to the Kentucky Oaks