The Queen Mary Stakes is a Group 2 flat horse race in Great Britain open to two-year-old thoroughbred fillies. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 5 furlongs (1,006 metres), and it is scheduled to take place each year in June.
The event is named after Queen Mary, the consort of King George V. It was established in 1921, and the inaugural running was won by Wild Mint.
The present system of race grading was introduced in 1971, and for a period the Queen Mary Stakes was classed at Group 3 level. It was promoted to Group 2 status in 2004.
The Queen Mary Stakes is now staged on day two of the five-day Royal Ascot meeting.
Read more about Queen Mary Stakes: Records, Winners Since 1978, Earlier Winners
Famous quotes containing the words queen, mary and/or stakes:
“In the early forties and fifties almost everybody “had about enough to live on,” and young ladies dressed well on a hundred dollars a year. The daughters of the richest man in Boston were dressed with scrupulous plainness, and the wife and mother owned one brocade, which did service for several years. Display was considered vulgar. Now, alas! only Queen Victoria dares to go shabby.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“Things will not mourn you, people will.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 191, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)
“Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of men.”
—William Empson (1906–1984)