Northumberland Plate at Newcastle 2024

With a prize fund of £150,000, the Northumberland Plate at Newcastle is still one of the richest handicaps in Britain, in fact, it was once the richest handicap race in Europe.

Run over two miles on the final day of Gosforth Park’s three-day Northumberland Plate Festival in late June, the Plate is one of the top staying handicaps of the year alongside the Chester Cup and the Cesarewitch.

Staged on the Tapeta surface since 2016 after Newcastle ripped up its turf course, the Northumberland Plate continues to attract some of the top staying horses in the UK and Ireland each year. An always over-subscribed race, the Plate has a consolation race earlier on the card and is backed up by the Group 3 Chipchase Stakes over six furlongs the same afternoon.

Past popular winners of a race sometimes still nicknamed the “Pitmen’s Derby”, but not by locals, include Celeric, Windsor Castle, Far Cry, Archduke Ferdinand, Sergeant Cecil, Overturn, Tominator (twice), Quest For More and the excellent Withhold.