DONCASTER
The title of Princess Royal is given by the reigning monarch to his or her eldest daughter – customarily, not as of right. The late Queen awarded that title to Princess Anne in 1987. The name has been given twice to locomotives and five times to Navy ships.
The revival of National Hunt racing at Doncaster after the war gathered pace in the 1947/48 season and the Princess Royal Hurdle was one of several races that began at the new two-day fixture in late February. There was already a Princess Royal Stakes at Ascot’s autumn meeting started in 1946.
The actual Princess Royal at the time was Princess Mary, the only daughter of George V and Queen Mary; the sister of Edward VIII and George VI. She married the subsequent 6th Earl of Harewood and lived at Harewood House for many years, hence the connection with Yorkshire. She and her husband rode with the Bramham Moor Hunt and owned racehorses.
The race became a handicap hurdle over two miles and the final running with the regal title was in March 1993. The following year the equivalent race was the plebiean Danka/NEC Handicap Hurdle.
ASCOT
The Princess Royal Stakes began at Ascot in 1946 as part to a permanent new autumn fixture. Before the war it staged only the four days a year of the Royal meeting. The fixture list was greatly reduced during wartime, venues were limited to those away from the likeliest bombing areas (and major employment centres). In the south Salisbury and Windsor were heavily used, so much so that their turf was getting a real battering. The desire to find fresh ground led to Ascot being brought into use in 1943. According to John Saville’s book Insane and Unseemly, the King had no objection. Indeed, he had already indicated that ordinary meetings should be added there.
In more recent times the Princess Royal Stakes has been a Group 3 for fillies and mares, prior to being downgraded in 2008 to a Listed race. In 1999 the name began to be shared with that of a sponsor – it was often the construction company Willmott Dixon between then and 2007. The best winner in the 21st century of the Ascot Princess Royal was Ouija Board in 2005, winner of the Epsom and Irish Oaks and twice triumphant at the Breeders’ Cup.
The name of the race moved to Newmarket in 2011 as part of the shake-up around the creation of Champions Day.
NEWMARKET
A race for fillies and mares named after the Princess Royal had been run at Ascot since 1946 until being moved to Newmarket in 2011 as part of the shake-up around the creation of Champions Day. That was when, controversially, Newmarket lost some of its long-established autumn races, notably the Champion Stakes.
The official title of the Princess Royal at Newmarket now includes the words “(Formerly The Harvest Stakes)”. It regained Group 3 status in 2017. Journey, in 2015 and 2016, was the best of the recent winners. After the second of those victories she went on to win the Fillies and Mares on Champions Day.