Queen Anne Stakes

The Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes is one of the top mile races of the season and is the opening event at Royal Ascot.

It has been won by many of the finest milers in Europe in recent years, including Goldikova (2010), Frankel (2012), Solow (2015) and Palace Pier (2021).

Godolphin have won the race a record eight times, seven of them trained by Saeed bin Suroor, while Frankie Dettori is the leading rider in the history of the event.

Find out more about the Queen Anne Stakes:

The Race Overview – Queen Anne Stakes

The Queen Anne Stakes is over the straight mile at Ascot racecourse.

They usually go at a fast early pace here, so it is not a race for horses who struggle to stay the trip.

The draw has no real impact, and it is more important for horses not to get too far behind in the early stages.

Famous Queen Anne Stakes Winners & History

The Queen Anne Stakes was first run in 1840 as the Trial Stakes, with victory going to Flambeau, successful again in 1841.

It was renamed in 1930 in honour of Queen Anne, the founder of Ascot racecourse. It was classed as a Group 3 race in 1971, promoted to Group 2 in 1984 and elevated to the highest class in 2003.

It had been open to three-year-olds before being granted Group 1 status.

Only three horses have managed to emulate Flambeau: Taskmaster (1885, 1886), Worcester (1895, 1896) and Dean Swift (1906, 1907).

The 1920 renewal was won by Comrade, who went on to win the inaugural Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in the same year.

There was a shock result in 1978 when Clive Brittain’s Radetzky returned from an unsuccessful spell at stud to win at 25-1.

The last three-year-old to win the Queen Anne Stakes was Trojan Fen in 1984, trained by Henry Cecil and ridden by Lester Piggott.

Warning was a brilliant winner for Khalid Abdullah in 1989. The owner would see his colours carried to victory in quite a stunning fashion by Frankel in 2012.

Frankel had won the Lockinge Stakes on his return to action and started 1-10 favourite in front of his adoring fans. It was the most impressive win of his career, beating old rival Excelebration by eleven lengths. Timeform rated Frankel 147 in the wake of that performance, the highest in the history of the organisation.

Other notable Queen Anne Stakes winners include the brilliant French mare Goldikova (2010). She is the only horse to win three Breeders’ Cup Mile races, and she took half a second off the record for the race when beating 2009 winner Paco Boy by a neck.

The International flavour of the race was further underlined in 2016 by American-trained Tepin, himself a Breeders’ Cup Mile winner the previous season.

Key Queen Anne Stakes Trials

The outstanding trial for the Queen Anne Stakes is the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury. Ten of the last twenty winners ran in that race on their previous outing. Palace Pier continued the trend in 2021, following up his Newbury victory by beating Lope Y Fernandez by a length and a half at Ascot. He had previously won the Bet365 Mile at Sandown impressively, another useful stepping-stone to the Queen Anne Stakes.

Queen Anne Stakes Betting Trends

Favourites have won seven of the last 12 renewals, with three of them starting odds-on.

Frankel famously started at 1-10 when routing the field in 2012, Toronado (2014) was a 4-5 shot while Palace Pier started at 2-7 in 2021. Goldikova (2010) was a well-supported 11-8 favourite, the same price as another French raider, Solow (2015).

Tepin started 11-2 third favourite when winning for America, despite his top-class form at the Breeders’ Cup.

The trend of market leaders dominating the Queen Anne was interrupted in 2018 by 33-1 outsider Accidental Agent, while Lord Glitters was a 14-1 shot when successful the following year.

Queen Anne Stakes Previous Winners

Check out the previous winners for the Queen Anne Stakes:

Year	Winner	Age	Jockey	Trainer
2013	Declaration of War	4	Joseph O’Brien	Aidan O’Brien
2014	Toronado	4	Richard Hughes	Richard Hannon Jr.
2015	Solow	5	Maxime Guyon	Freddy Head
2016	Tepin	5	Julien Leparoux	Mark Casse
2017	Ribchester	4	William Buick	Richard Fahey
2018	Accidental Agent	4	Charlie Bishop	Eve Johnson Houghton
2019	Lord Glitters	6	Daniel Tudhope	David O’Meara
2020	Circus Maximus	4	Ryan Moore	Aidan O’Brien
2021	Palace Pier	4	Frankie Dettori	John & Thady Gosden
2022	Baaeed	4	Jim Crowley	William Haggas
2023	Triple Time	4	Neil Callan	Kevin Ryan
2024	Charyn	4	Silvestre de Sousa	Roger Varian
2025	Docklands	5	Mark Zahra	Harry Eustace

Queen Anne Stakes Stats

Four-year-olds have the upper hand in this race with 8 victories in the past 12 seasons.

Lord Glitters (2019) was a trend breaker, winning as a six-year-old, the first to do so since Ardoon in 1976.

Recent winning form is often a good guide to the outcome here, notably from Newbury’s Lockinge Stakes, which has an outstanding record in the Queen Anne.

Ten of the last 12 winners had at least one previous race that season.

Eight of the last 12 winners had run at Ascot at least once in the past, and seven of them had one or more victories at Group 1 or Group 2 level.

Top Trainers and Jockeys of The Queen Anne Stakes

The late Sir Henry Cecil trained four consecutive winners from 1981 to 1984 with Belmont Bay, Mr Fluorocarbon, Valiyar and Trojan Fen. His achievement was later matched by Saeed bin Suroor (1996-1999), who would go on to become the most successful trainer in the history of the race with seven winners. His most recent winner was Ramonti in 2007, although owners Godolphin achieved a record eighth victory with the Richard Fahey-trained Ribchester ten years later.

Frankie Dettori is the leading jockey in Queen Anne Stakes history with seven winners. His first winner was Markofdistinction in 1990, 31 years ahead of his 2021 victory aboard Palace Pier.

Ten different jockeys have won the last ten renewals.

Betting on the Queen Anne Stakes

There is a strong ante-post market on the Queen Anne Stakes.

The race is particularly noteworthy as the opening race of Royal Ascot, and the outcome of the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury heavily influences quotes. There are usually some enhanced prices about the Queen Anne favourite for new customers with 888Sport offering 6-1 to a £5 stake about odds-on Palace Pier ahead of the 2021 renewal.

The Sussex Stakes at Goodwood is the obvious target for Queen Anne Stakes winners, a route successfully taken by Frankel in 2012. Palace Pier travelled to France for the Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville on his next start, defeating Sussex Stakes winner Poetic Flare by a neck.

Summary of the Queen Anne Stakes

The Queen Anne Stakes is one of the most eagerly awaited mile races of the season, particularly as it kick-starts Royal Ascot.

Class and form invariably come to the fore with some high-profile market leaders winning in recent years.

We are most unlikely to see another Frankel, but the Queen Anne Stakes sets the standard for the rest of the meeting.