Yorkshire Oaks

WARM HEART (pink cap) winning the Yorkshire Oaks at York in England. Picture: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

The Yorkshire Oaks is a Group 1 race run under Weight For Age conditions for fillies and mares at York conducted by the York Racecourse.

The Yorkshire Oaks is run over the mile and a half. It was first run in 1849 and was won by Ellen Middleton.

The race was originally run as a three year old fillies race but was to include mares in 1991. It became a Group 1 when the new grading occurred in 1971.

Fillies had won five runnings in a row before Enable won the title back in 2019. Love and Snowfall got things back on track for the fillies and Warm Heart then in 2023.

The Yorkshire Oaks is run on the second day of the Ebor Festival at York.

Three horses have multiple wins – Only Royale, Islington and Enable. The first of Enable and Islington's was as a filly.

Horses like Alexandrova, Enable and Snowfall have won the Oaks treble of Epsom, Irish and Yorkshire.

Enable won this as her final run before taking the Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe in 2017. Sea Of Class missed by a head of taking the same double but ironically it was Enable that stopped her in Paris.

She won this race again in 2019 before tackling her third Arc but was run down late in that by Waldgeist.

Snowfall did her Oaks treble with winning margins of 16L, 8.5L and 4L.

Alpinista used the Yorkshire Oaks as her last run before taking on and winning the 2022 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Warm Heart won for Coolmore in 2023. She is the daughter of former Aussie G1 winning sprinting filly Sea Siren.

The leading jockey is Fred Archer who won eight times over a 12 year period in the late 1800s.

Mathew Dawson and Sir Michael Stoute both have nine victories in the Oaks.

The Yorkshire Oaks was worth £500,000 in 2023.

Notable winners of the Yorkshire Oaks include Alpinista (2022), Snowfall (2021), Love (2020), Enable (2017/2019), Sea Of Class (2018), Tapesty (2014), The Fugue (2013), Blue Bunting (2011), Midday (2010), Dar Re Mi (2009), Alexandrova (2006), Islington (2002/2003), Petrushka (2000), Only Royale (1993/1994), Lupe (1970), Petite Etoile (1959), Winkipop (1910), Wheel Of Fortune (1879), Jannette (1878) and Virago (1854).

The 2023 Yorkshire Oaks was won by Warm Heart from Free Wind and Savethelastdance.