Currently scheduled as the opening race on the fifth and final day of Royal Ascot, the Chesham Stakes is a Listed contest, run over seven furlongs, open to two-year-olds whose sire won over a mile and a quarter or further and worth £110,000 in prize money. The race was inaugurated in 1919, when it replaced the first leg of the Triennial Stakes – a three-year cycle of races, for two-, three- and four-year-olds, over increasing distances – and, like that race, was originally run over fiev furlongs. The distance of the Chesham Stakes was subsequently increased to six furlongs and, again, to its current yardage, in 1966. The race is named after Charles Cavendish, Third Baron Chesham, who was appointed Master of the Buckhounds in 1900.
The most prolific jockey in the history of Royal Ascot, Lester Piggott, remains the leading jockey in the history of the Chesham Stakes, too, having ridden seven winners between 1960 and 1982. The most prolific trainer, Aidan O’Brien, is likewise the leading trainer, having also saddled seven winners, including five in the last 10 runnings.
All of the last five O’Brien-trained winners, Churchill (2016), September (2017), Battleground (2020), Point Lonsdale (2021) and Bedtime Story (2024), were ridden by Ryan Moore and all five were sent off favourite. Three other winners in the past decade came from the first three in the betting, with Holloway Boy (2022) and Snellen (2023) the only winners in that period to be returned at double-figure odds.
With a view to the future, three recent winners of the Chesham Stakes, Pinatubo (2019), Battleground (2020) and Holloway Boy (2022) went on to run in the Vintage Stakes, a Group 2 contest run over seven furlongs at Goodwood in late July or early August. Pinatubo and Battleground both justified favouritism at Goodwood, while Holloway Boy failed by half a length to do so.