UK Horse Races
Epsom Oaks
The Oaks Stakes is a Group 1 United Kingdom flat horse race for three-year-old fillies run over a distance of 1 mile 4 furlongs and 10 yards (2,423 metres) at Epsom Downs in early June. It is one of five classic races in the UK.
The race is named after the Earl of Derby's estate "The Oaks" in Carshalton, about 4 miles to the east of Epsom Downs. At a dinner party held there the Earl and his friends planned a sweepstake for three-year-old fillies over a distance of one and a half miles (2,414 metres) and this was first run the following year 1779 and won by the Earl's own horse Bridget. The race has been named thus since.
As one of the most famous race courses in the world, its also one of the most testing trips in flat racing today. Resembling the shape of a horseshoe, the Epsom course of a mile and a half is ran in a left-handed direction.
A right-handed rise of some one hundred and forty feet begins not long after the race commences. After about three furlongs at the top of the hill the field descend at Tattenham Corner and enter the finishing straight of about three and a half furlongs. The drop of about one hundred feet continues until about one hundred yards from the finishing line, the ground here rises for another several feet before the winning post.