Royal Ascot: Hardwicke Stakes

The Hardwicke Stakes, held on the final day of the Royal meeting, is a Group 2 race over 1 mile 3 furlongs and 211 yards and is open to horses aged four years or older. The race is named in honour of the 5th Earl of Hardwicke, the Master of the Buckhounds in Benjamin Disraeli’s government from 1874 to 1880. The race was named in his honour in 1879, but he was an inveterate gambler who had huge debts with Agar-Robartes Bank and had to try to sell his Wimpole Hall Estate in Cambridgeshire in 1891. However, it failed to sell at auction and Lord Robartes, chairman of the Bank, had to accept the Estate in settlement of the debt.
Early history:- The inaugural running of the Hardwicke Stakes over a mile and a half of the Swinley Course took place on Friday 13th June 1879 with £2000 added prize money and a massive 168 subscribers at 10 sovereigns each. The race was won by Lord Bradford's Chippendale, beating Lord Falmouth's Silvio and Mr W Crawfurd's Lancastrian by a head and 10 lengths in 2 minutes 56 seconds.
Hardwicke Stakes 2003 Stakes 1 1/2 miles
Pos. Horse Jockey Trainer Owner
1 INDIAN CREEK T Quinn David Elsworth Mr Seymour Cohn 14/1
2 BOLLIN ERIC Kevin Darley Tim Easterby Sir Neil Westbrook 4/1
3 ZINDABAD Darryll Holland Mark Johnston Abdulla Buhaleeba 9/2
4 BANDARI Richard Hills Mark Johnston Hamdan Al Maktoum 11/2
5 HIGHEST Frankie Dettori Saeed Bin Suroor Godolphin 5/2 fav
6 PARASOL Jamie Spencer David Loder Mohammed Al Nabouda 9/1
7 RAWYAAN Willie Supple John Gosden Hamdan Al Maktoum 16/1
8 BALAKHERI Johnny Murtagh Sir Michael Stoute HH Aga Khan 14/1
9 COMPTON BOLTER Eddie Ahern Gerard Butler Mr Erik Penser 25/1
The Hardwicke Stakes over a mile and a half of the Swinley Course was on Saturday 21st June 2003 and the winner, a brown horse by Indian Ridge out of Blue Water won a first prize of £87,000 (equivalent to £141,000 in 2020). Over round 116%
Hardwicke Stakes Group 2 1 mile 4 furlongs 1879
                  1879
1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000 2001 2002 2003