Epsom Oaks

The Epsom Oaks, officially the Oaks Stakes and popularly just the Oaks, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs over one mile, four furlongs and six yards, about a mile and a half, and takes place each year in late May or early June. It is the second-oldest of Britain's five Classic races, after the St Leger, and the second of the two restricted to fillies. The race is named after The Oaks, an estate near Epsom leased to the 12th Earl of Derby, where he and his guests devised it at a party in 1778. It was first run, as the Oakes Stakes, in 1779, a year before the Derby, and the first winner, Bridget, belonged to Lord Derby himself. Horses have carried nine stone since 1892, and the race can serve as the middle leg of the Fillies Triple Crown.