The Kentucky Derby Challenge Stakes is an English Thoroughbred horse race run for the first time on March 18, 2009 at Kempton Park Racecourse in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey. Open to three-year-old European horses, it is raced clockwise at a distance of nine furlongs (1⅛ miles, app. 1800 metres) on Polytrack synthetic dirt.
The winner of the race is guaranteed one of the twenty starting spots in the 1¼ mile (10 furlongs) 2009 Kentucky Derby held on the first Saturday in May on the dirt track at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The race offers a purse of US$150,000 of which $90,000 comes from Churchill Downs and $60,000 from Kempton. In addition, if the race winner exercises their right to run in the Kentucky Derby, they will receive a further $100,000 bonus payment plus will be given an automatic spot in the ensuing two legs of the U.S. Triple Crown series, the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
No European-based horse has ever won the Kentucky Derby.
The 2010 race was suspended,
Read more about Kentucky Derby Challenge Stakes: Winners
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