Recent Stakes Races |
| Just select a country from the right hand column for a list of recent stakes races. |
| For each country, the present month's black type races are shown. There is an option
to select last month's, this year's or last year's stakes races. The listings are updated nightly. Note, for Canada & USA, only the graded results are recorded here as they do not produce a definitive pre-season listing of their non-graded black type races. |
Stakes Races - a definition |
| The wording "stakes race" used in connection with cataloguing is synonymous with "black type race" and encompasses Group races, Graded races and Listed races. |
| The wording derives its origin from a type of racing in North America. In that context, a stakes races is a race whereby the owners contribute money towards the race stake money. Generally, this relates to a race which closes more than 48 hours before the race is due to be run. Prior to the mid-1960s, the North American cataloguing style was a tabulated style somewhat similar to that universally used nowadays, whereas the rest of the world tended to use a run-on style. During the early 1960s, the North Americans decided to add a feature to their style of pedigree - horses which had won a stakes race would be output in bold capitals and horses which had run 2nd or 3rd would be in u/lower case bold. To handle racing outside North America which did not have an equivalent of the NA stakes race, a listing of eligible races in foreign countries was produced. |
| The new cataloguing style was an immediate hit, and other countries began to adopt that style. The problem however was how to clearly and unequivocally identify the black type races. In 1984, the major racing nations produced the International Cataloguing Standards Booklet, and introduced moves to rationalise the various standards practised
in each country into a single uniform standard. In doing so, certain of the NA stakes races were dropped from earning black type. |
| The period of rationalisation took perhaps 10 years, during which the standard changed on a yearly basis. In more recent times, the situation has settled and a consistent standard has been established. All countries whose races earn black type are listed in the Cataloguing Standards Booklet. The only races which are not explicitly shown are the North American races under a certain monetary value. |
Group & Graded & Listed Races |
| During the early 1960s, the major European racing nations introduced a racing Pattern. The major non-handicap races were assigned a Pattern of 1, 2 or 3. As the use of black type in cataloguing took hold, so the European idea of further classification of races spread. For the European racing, the Pattern races were renamed as Group Races. North America followed to some degree calling its races Graded Races, but extended the grading to include Handicap races which are excluded from the European
Pattern. |
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In addition to extending the use of group/graded race status to handicaps, North
America also decided to limit the use of gradings to races which were not restricted for entry by anything other than age or sex. This was aimed principally at Canada,
where many of the major races were restricted to Canadian-breds, effectively excluding
USA-breds from competing. Despite the Canadian's assigning their races groupings,
they were not deemed graded races with the International Cataloguing Standards Committee.
The same rationale was applied to Japanese racing. |
| Listed races are those black type races which are in the International Cataloguing Standards Booklet but which are not group or graded. |
Shortcoming in the ICSC Standards
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| While all black type races are listed in the Cataloguing Standards Booklet at the
beginning of each season for most countries which earn black type, crucially this
is not the case for the USA and Canada. The Graded races and the principal
listed races are included, but the minor black type races are not. Nor is
a listing included the following year to definitively detail the previous season's
races which earned black type. All that is provided is a complex set of conditions
which must be examined for each of those type of races to determine if it satisfies
the necessary conditions. While this situation continues to not be addressed
by the International Cataloguing Standards Committee, instances of races, and hence
horses, being awarded black type incorrectly will continue to happen.
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Variations on the ICSC Standards |
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While from a purists point of view it may have been acceptable to rank all Canadian and Japanese black type races as just listed, it does not help a person from outside that region who is trying to judge the relative merit of races. For that reason
and for the year's in which the bulk of Canada and Japan's races where treated as
listed, we have replaced the listed indicator (L) with the race's local grouping in the style (Jpn-1, Can-3, etc). Note, these are listed races - the indicator is purely to assist in judging the race's merit. This has been further extended
to classify the major races in the important Asian racing hubs of Singapore and
Hong Kong (HK-1, Sgp-2, etc). Again, the races are listed, with the local
group provided for information only. |
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In most catalogues around the world, only black type performances (in the main) are output. In New Zealand and Australia, the normal practice is to output all metropolitan wins and placings on a catalogue page, This presents a problem for the uninitiated in determining what is a black type race and what is not. For that reason, all black type races are marked as group or listed. |
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In the early 1980s, a review of historic Australian and New Zealand racing and indicative
groupings applied retrospectively. Where these are output on a catalogue page,
they are shown in light typeface. |
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