History
The event was devised by Major Leslie Petch, a former Clerk of the Course at York. It was first run in 1972, but by this time Petch had resigned from his position due to ill health. The race was originally sponsored by Benson and Hedges and called the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup. The inaugural running was won by Roberto, that year's Derby winner. The second-placed horse was Brigadier Gerard – his only defeat in a career of eighteen races.
The sponsorship of Benson and Hedges continued until 1985, and for the following two years the event was backed by the bloodstock company Matchmaker. Its title during this period was the Matchmaker International. The present sponsor, Juddmonte Farms, started supporting the race in 1989. It is now familiarly known as the Juddmonte International.
The International Stakes is currently held on the opening day of York's four-day Ebor Festival meeting. It is the venue's richest race of the season.
Read more about this topic: International Stakes
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“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“America is, therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World’s history shall reveal itself. It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of Old Europe.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)