Cheshire Oaks at Chester 2024

Run as part of Chester’s immensely popular three-day May Festival; the Cheshire Oaks is a good Listed race in its own right, but perhaps more importantly, it acts as one of the key trials for The Oaks at Epsom in early June.

Run over a trip of 1 mile and 3 furlongs, the Cheshire Oaks is worth around £76,000 in prize money and often attracts some very classy fillies indeed, though not all make it to Epsom.

Major winners of this race include Shoot A Line, Swiftfoot, Bolas and Light Shift, but the flagbearer for the contest now is undoubtedly Enable, winner of the 2017 renewal, and a subsequent multiple Group 1 winning mare for John Gosden and Frankie Dettori.

The Cheshire Oaks has been on the calendar since 1950, originally as a 1½ mile race, and looks set fair for many more years of success as one of the favoured destinations for early season middle-distance three-year-olds fillies trained at top yards.