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. |
| Hardwicke Stakes 1879 | Stakes | Old Mile | ||
| Pos. | Horse | Jockey | Age/weight | Owner |
| 1 | CHIPPENDALE | J Osborne | Wadlow 3-8st 8lbs | Lord Bradford 100/8 |
| 2 | SILVIO | Fred Archer | Mathew Dawson 5-9st 2lbs | Lord Falmouth 4/6 fav |
| 3 | LANCASTRIAN | George Fordham | Alec Taylor 3-7st 12lbs | Mr W Crawfurd 100/8 |
| 4 | ISMAIL | Skerratt | Tom Jennings 3-7st 12lbs | Count Lagrange 100/8 |
| 5 | TOUCHET | Constable | Robert Peck 5-9st 12lbs | Lord Rosebery 100/8 |
| 6 | EXETER | Lemaire | Charles Blanton 3-7st 12lbs | Mr Blanton 7/1 |
| 7 | SIDONIA | Chaloner | John Dawson 5-8st 6lbs | Prince Batthyany 25/1 |
| 8 | PHENIX | Jem Goater | Tom Jennings 4-9st 10lbs | Count Lagrange 7/1 |
| 9 | LORD CLIVE | Fred Webb | Joseph Dawson 4-9st 10lbs | Duke of St Albans 25/1 |
| 10 | SIR AMYAS LEIGH | Mordan | Osborne 3-7st 7lbs | Mr Osborne 16/1 |
| The inaugural running of the Hardwicke Stakes over a mile and a half of the Swinley Course was on Friday 13th June 1879 and the winner, Chippendale (100/8), a brown horse by Rococo out of Adversity, won a huge first prize of £3130 (equivalent to £392,000 in 2020), beating Silvio (4/6 fav) and Lancastrian (100/8) by a head and 10 lengths in 2 minutes 56 seconds. | Over round 130% | |||
| Hardwicke Stakes | Group 2 | 1 mile 4 furlongs | 1879 | ||||||
| 1879 | |||||||||