The Queen Mary Stakes | Royal Ascot | Race Profile
Race Events > Royal Ascot > The Queen Mary Stakes
The 2018 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot
Wednesday 20th June 2018
| Local Time (BST) | UTC | EDT | CDT | MDT | PDT | Race |
| 3:05pm | 2:05 PM | 10:05 AM | 9:05 AM | 8:05 AM | 7:05 AM | The Queen Mary Stakes (Group 2) |
About The Queen Mary Stakes of Royal Ascot
Inaugurated in 1921, the Queen Mary Stakes is a race for 2-year-old fillies at Ascot Racecourse in England. It is run over a distance of 5 furlongs on the turf, and the current purse is around £110,000. The event is named after Queen Mary, the consort of King George V.
The Royal Ascot meet is a magnificent International event and The Queen Mary is staged on Day 2 of the five day Royal Ascot meet in June. The race can be difficult to find the winner with many lightly-raced fillies, but it gives fans a first glimpse of the highly-regarded fillies from the leading stables.
The list of former winners is truly something to behold. Recent champions include Maqaasid, Rizeena and Acapulco. The likes of Sun Chariot, Waterloo, Lyric Fantasy and Queen’s Logic also won the Queen Mary, before going on to scale even-greater heights. This is a very-important race that has grown in popularity.
In the past 40 years since 1978, seven fillies have won with a time under 1 minute. Lyric Fantasy (1992) in :59.72, Flashy Wings (2005) in a race record :58.18, Maqaasid (2010) in :59.17, Ceiling Kitty (2012) in :59.18, Rizeena (2013) in :59.29, Anthem Alexander (2014) in :59.15, and Heartache (2017) in :59.63.
Since 2009, when Wesley Ward became the first U.S.-based trainer to win a Royal Ascot race, popularity has grown for American trainers to attend Royal Ascot. Kentucky-based Lane’s End Farm signed on as a title sponsor of NBC’s coverage, and like the young 2-year-old fillies running in The Queen Mary, the growth and improvement is drawing more interest.
American viewers were given a close-up of the 30 races run during the five day Royal Ascot meet in 2017 when NBC Sports expanded its horse racing portfolio to broadcast its first Royal Ascot meet. The pageantry that envelops Royal Ascot and its packed stands is something to see, as Queen Elizabeth II, 91 years old in 2017, arrives each morning of the event in a horse-drawn carriage. Even though there is a bit of pomp and ceremony to it, Ascot is pure fun and an event where everybody sort of relaxes and has a good time.