The Sandringham Handicap Stakes
The Sandringham Handicap Stakes is a listed Class 1 race that caps off the racing on the second day of the Royal Ascot meeting. The 2008 Sandringham Handicap Stakes will be run at 5:30pm on Wednesday the 21st of June.
The Sandringham Handicap Stakes was added to the Royal Ascot meeting in 2004, and was named after one of the Royal Family's favourite escapes - Sandringham House. The race is the only handicap race run on day two of the Royal Ascot meeting, and carries a £60,000 purse.
Entry into the Sandringham Handicap Stakes is restricted to three-year-old fillies and is run over a mile on the Ascot flat racing course. The race tends to attract some of the previous season's best filly milers.
Sandringham Handicap Stakes Winners
As a handicap event, the Sandringham Handicap Stakes tends to be contested by fairly level fields, and it is not unusual for placed horses to carry similar odds. However, handicaps also create a space for heroic performances by long-odds horses, with 2007 Sandringham Stakes winner Barshiba defying the handicapper and her 15-1 odds to claim a famous victory.
The last race of day two sees some of Britain's best jockeys jostling to chalk up another major race victory. Although Michael Kinane, Frankie Dettori and Kieran Fallon have all participated in the race in the last decade, Michael Kinane is the only one to have ridden a horse to victory, winning the 2005 race on Beautyandthebeast.
No trainer has managed to establish dominance in the Sandringham Handicap Stakes during the short history of the race. Whilst many of the top trainers have managed to achieve placed finishes with their horses, none have managed more than a single placed finish in the race's four-year history. David Elsworth is the most recent trainer to have won the event.
Sandringham Handicap Stakes Betting
Handicap races are notoriously difficult when it comes to picking an outright winner, which makes it inadvisable to attempt to bet only one horse. Bookies compensate for the unpredictable nature of these races by raising odds to give punters the opportunity to earn dividends off spread betting.
Pre-race favourites in the *horse racing betting markets rarely go on to win the Sandringham Stakes, with the 2006 race providing the only example of three short-odds racehorses coming in placed.
For live horse race betting and daily special offers we recommend William Hill.
