The Duke of Edinburgh Stakes

19 Jun 2001: Daryll Holland and Takamaka Bay hold of the challenge of the Kevin Darley ridden Akbar to land The Duke of Edinburgh Stakes on the first day of The Royal Meeting.

The Class 2 heritage handicap Duke of Edinburgh Stakes is the penultimate race of the Royal Ascot meeting. The 2008 Duke of Edinburgh Stakes will be run at 4:55pm on Saturday the 24th of June on the Ascot flat racing course.

The Edinburgh Stakes was first run in 1973, and was named after Prince Phillip, the royal consort to Queen Elizabeth II. The race is one of the less prestigious events at the Royal Ascot meeting, frequently giving less fancied stables the opportunity to claim a Royal Ascot title.

The Edinburgh Stakes is open to three-year-old and over racehorses, and is run over the middle distance of one mile and four furlongs. The Edinburgh Stakes carries a prize fund of £60,000.

Duke of Edinburgh Stakes Winners

The Duke of Edinburgh Stakes is a tough race to win as the handicappers tend to be particularly harsh on horses coming into the race on the back of a win in another event. In 2006 Young Mick reversed the recent trend of short-odds horses coming in placed by winning the race despite 28-1 odds.

Michael Kinane has had a good record in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes in recent races, having won the 2005 event and finishing placed on two other occasions. The top jockeys of the Royal Ascot contest this race with surprising ferocity, which means that although the top names in the sport are always in evidence in the final standings – no jockey has managed to win the race twice since the turn of the millennium.

Sir Michael Stoute has extended his dominance of the Royal Ascot meeting into the Prince of Edinburgh Stakes in the last decade, winning the race once and finishing placed on two other occasions. Mark Johnston saw his horses come in 1st and 2nd in 2001, but hasn’t managed to train a Duke of Edinburgh Stakes winner since.

Duke of Edinburgh Stakes Betting

The Duke of Edinburgh Stakes betting trends show that highly rated horses tend to perform well in the race, as is demonstrated by recent results in the race which have seen short-odds horses perform very well. Before doing your Duke of Edinburgh Stakes horse racing betting, take note of the minimal impact of handicaps on the performances of winning horses, with eight of the last ten winners carrying nine stone or more.

For live horse race betting we use William Hill, one of the world's largest betting companies.