The National Stakes is not a name that obviously deserves to be in this record, but it has quite a pedigree. It was called the National Breeders’ Produce Stakes until 1959. It originated at Sandown on Friday 21 July 1882, run over five furlongs (although for a time it was run at Easter and at the Eclipse meeting). For decades it was the most valuable two-year-old race in the calendar.
The 1882 race had been advertised as far back as December 1879. In an exciting finish of necks and heads t was won by an unfancied, unnamed filly who turned over the 2/5 favourite. Produce Stakes (there were others elsewhere) had a complicated set of penalties and conditions designed to appeal to breeders of as yet unborn horses; very early entries cost little, and potentially win a big prize two years later.
In 1901 one respected commentator wrote “it happens that the race has often been won by a moderate horse.” That was about to change. Pretty Polly (qv) won it in 1903 en route to the Fillies’ Triple Crown a year later. Bayardo won it in 1909 and though he wasn’t at his best in the first half of his classic year he turned out to be much the best horse of his generation.
The Tetrarch, perhaps the greatest two-year-old of all, scraped home in 1913. He was already so famous that crowds lined the length of Sandown’s five furlong track. In that year the prize money was a colossal £5,000. The breeder of the winner took £300 of that and the owners and breeders of the second and third received £200 each and £100 each respectively – hence the Breeders aspect of the race name. Entries could then be made up to eighteen months in advance for one shilling – but if you waited until three months before it would cost £22. The prize money was generated by a lot of shillings from hopeful foal-owners, and the Sandown management only had to put in £220 of their own funds.
More first-rate winners came from the race between the wars, including Mumtaz Mahal and Bahram, and just after with Tudor Minstrel and Abernant. Since then, however, the preponderance of five furlong races for two-year-olds – leaving everyone guessing about their stamina for the following year’s classics – has disappeared. Future Guineas and Derby winners were no longer racing over the minimum trip in the July of their juvenile careers.
The title was shortened to the National Stakes in 1960. It was still a valuable race, though those complicated old conditions had gone by then. Its status decreased steadily and it is now a Listed race run at Sandown’s good evening meeting at the end of May.