British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes
The British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes is a Group 1 race run under Weight For Age conditions for fillies and mares at Ascot conducted by the Ascot Racecourse.
The British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes is run over a mile and a half. It was first run in 1946 and was won by Mehmany.
It is run as a feature on the newly Ascot established British Champions Day as the end of season UK championship race meeting.
This was originally known as the Princess Royal Stakes (after Princess Mary at the time).
In 1971 it was classified as a Group 3 and then in 2008 moved to Newmarket, was called the Pride Stakes and became a Group 2. When back to Ascot on Champions day, it was given the title British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes and elevated to Group 1 in 2011.
The only multiple winners are Shebeen and Crystal Capella.
After failing in the 2018 Arc, Magical would win on Champions day and then head to Churchill Downs where she was very brave behind Enable in the Breeders' Cup Turf.
In the last decade the fillies have won 8 to the mares 2.
Leading trainer is John Dunlop with nine victories over a forty year period. Most wins as a jockey is by Lester Piggott with eight.
They ran the 2019 edition on the inside track given how wet the course proper was. It happened again in 2023.
Nearing the end of one of the great seasons of his extraordinary career, Frankie Dettori's win on Star Catcher in 2019 was his 250th at G1 level.
Wonderful Tonight had won the Prix de Royallieu before this victory and then returned to take the Hardwicke Stakes at the subsequent Royal Ascot.
The British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes was worth £500,000 in 2023.
Notable winners of the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes include Wonderful Tonight (2020), Star Catcher (2019), Magical (2018), Simple Verse (2015), Dancing Rain (2011), Crystal Capella (2008/2010), Ouija Board (2005), Snow Bride (1989), Shebeen (1974/1975) and Attica Meli (1972).
The 2023 British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes was won by Poptronic from Bluestocking and Jackie Oh.