Sandown Summer Celebration: Race List & Meeting Info
August maybe coming to an end by the time Sandown's Summer Celebration rolls around but there's still plenty of life left in the flat racing season.
The meeting takes place over two days, Friday and Saturday, at the start of the final weekend in August, often the beginning of the bank holiday weekend. The main focus on the track comes on the second day in the form of two Group 3 contests, the Atalanta Stakes and the Solario Stakes.
Day One Races - Friday
| Race | Grade | Length | Prize Money | Ages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nursery Handicap | Class 5 | 5f10y | £8,200 | 2 Years Old |
| Betway Handicap | Class 5 | 5f10y | £9,200 | 3 Years Old + |
| British EBF Maiden Stakes | Class 4 | 7f | £7,400 | 2 Years Old |
| Betway Handicap | Class 3 | 1m | £15,000 | 3 Years Old |
| Betway Casino Handicap | Class 4 | 1m1f209y | £12,200 | 3 Years Old |
| Betway Fillies' Handicap | Class 5 | 1m1f209y | £9,200 | 3 Year Old + Fillies |
Nursery Handicap
Class 5, 5f10y
Open to horses aged two with a handicap of between 0 and 75, the Nursery Handicap is the first race of the Sandown Summer Celebration and acts as a qualifying race for the Jockey Club Grassroots Nursery. Run over five furlongs and ten yards, it’s a Class 5 offering that usually takes around a minute to complete.
Betway Handicap
Class 5, 5f10y
The presence of the betting company Betway as a major sponsor for the Sandown Summer Celebration means that there are a number of races that bear the moniker of ‘Betway Handicap’. This one is for horses aged three and over with a rating of between 0 and 75. As with the opening race of the meeting, it’s run over five furlongs and ten yards and is a Class 5 race.
British EBF Maiden Stakes
Class 4, 7f
Run in association with the British European Breeders Fund, this race takes place over seven furlongs and is open to horses aged two. It’s a Plus 10 race, which often brings in a good set of runners, and is also a Class 4 race. It takes around a minute and a half to complete the race when the Going is Good to Firm.
Betway Handicap
Class 3, 1m
A race for three-year-olds with a rating of between 0 and 90, this Betway Handicap is run over one mile. It’s a Class 3 race and the winning horse stands to take home around £9,000. You can expect this event to last about a minute and forty seconds if the Going is Good to Firm.
Betway Casino Handicap
Class 4, 1m1f209y
A Class 4 race that is run over one mile, one furlong and two hundred and nine yards, the Betway Casino Handicap presents the winner with about £7,000 in prize money. Open to horses aged three with a rating of between 0 and 80, the race usually lasts for a little over two minutes.
Betway Fillies' Handicap
Class 5, 1m1f209y
As the name suggests, this race is limited to female horses aged three and over. They’ll need to have a rating of between 0 and 75 to take part in the Class 5 event. Once they’ve qualified, the horses will have about two minutes to complete the one mile, one furlong and two hundred and nine yards of the course if they hope to amongst the places.
Day Two Races - Saturday
| Race | Grade | Length | Prize Money | Ages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Betway Handicap | Class 3 | 5f10y | £20,000 | 3 Years Old + |
| Betway Handicap | Class 2 | 1m1f209y | £45,000 | 3 Years Old + |
| Atalanta Stakes | Class 1 | 1m | £70,000 | 3 Years Old + |
| Solario Stakes | Class 1 | 7f | £50,000 | 5 Years Old + |
| Nursery Handicap | Class 4 | 7f | £11,200 | 2 Years Old |
| Betway Live Casino Handicap | Class 4 | 1m | £11,200 | 3 Years Old + |
| Betway Casino Handicap | Class 4 | 1m1f209y | £11,200 | 3 Years Old + |
Betway Handicap
Class 3, 5f10y
The second day of the Sandown Summer Celebration gets underway with this handicap, which is open to horses aged three and over that have a handicap rating of between 0 and 95. Run over five furlongs and ten yards, it’s a Class 3 race that usually takes a minute to be run.
Betway Handicap
Class 2, 1m1f209y
With a prize pot that allows for about £30,000 to go towards the winner, this Class 2 handicap is usually rather popular. That it’s open to horses aged three and over merely serves to increase its popularity. Run over one mile, one furlong and two hundred and nine yards, the Betway Handicap lasts for more than two minutes most days.
Atalanta Stakes
Class 1, 1m
This Group 3 race is for fillies and mares that are aged 3 and over. It is run right-handed over 1 mile and was classed as a Listed race until it got its promotion to Group 3 in 2012. There’s a fair bit of weight information at play for this race, with the following being the relevant bits:
- 3-year-olds: 8 stone 10 pounds
- 4-year-olds and over: 9 stone 1 pound
- Group 1 winners receive a 7 pound penalty
- Group 2 winners receive a 5 pound penalty
- Group 3 winners receive a 3 pound penalty
The other key piece of information is that horses that have won either a Group 1 or Group 2 race since the previous September are ineligible to take part in the race.
The Atalanta Stakes was originally part of the Variety Club Day at Sandown Racecourse, which was a fundraising event for the Variety Club in England. The leading jockey in the event remains Pat Eddery, who won it four times, whilst Sir Michael Stoute has won it six times as a trainer.
Solario Stakes
Class 1, 7f
Named after one of the most successful racehorses of the 1920s that went on to be a leading sire, the race was first run in 1947. It was a Listed race when the current format for race gradings was introduced in 1971 and then promoted to Grade 3 in 1986. As with the Atalanta Stakes, it was one of the feature races of Variety Club Day earlier in the year but was moved to August in 2012.
Run right-handed over seven furlongs, it’s exclusively for two-year-olds with a weight of nine stone and one pound. Fillies are given a three pound allowance and Group 1 and Group 2 race winners are given a five pound penalty, whilst Group 3 winners get a three pound penalty. The race’s most successful jockey is Lester Piggott who won it six times during his career, which is the same number of races that Henry Cecil managed as a trainer.
Nursery Handicap
Class 4, 7f
As with the Nursery Handicap race that is run on the first day of the Sandown Summer Celebration, this offering serves as a qualifying race for the Jockey Club Grassroots Nursery race. It’s open to two-year-olds with a handicap rating of between 0 and 85, lasting for seven furlongs in length.
Betway Live Casino Handicap
Class 4, 1m
A class 4 race for horses aged three and over, this offering is run over one mile. Participating horses must have a handicap rating of between 0 and 85, with the race usually expected to take about one minute and forty seconds to complete. The winner stands to take home about £6,500 in prize money.
Betway Casino Handicap
Class 4, 1m1f209y
There are very few differences between this race and the one that is run before it, given that it is open to horses aged three and over with a rating of between 0 and 85. It’s run over one mile, one furlong and two hundred and nine yards, with the Class 4 race promising about £6,500 in prize money.
About the Sandown Summer Celebration
In the world of horse racing, summer is unquestionably the time for flat racing to come to the fore. The harder ground is ideal for faster, younger horses, which is why so many flat racing venues are resplendent at that time of year. Nowhere is that more true than at Sandown Park Racecourse, with the Surrey venue benefiting from its proximity to London in terms of welcoming large crowds of people keen to escape the rat race in favour of a more pleasant and relaxed environment.
That’s what the Summer Celebration offers them, combining top-class racing with a party atmosphere as the summer season at the course is brought to a close in style. The racecourse as a whole is open to be explored on the Friday, whilst the Saturday is a day of cocktails and fun, with a carnival atmosphere kicking in when the racing comes to an end. It comes a month and a half or so after the Summer Festival, which is usually held at Sandown at the start of July and bookmarks summer nicely for the Esher-based racecourse.
Two Days of Racing
Some racecourse like to make the most of their meetings, with Royal Ascot being an example of one that lasts all week and sees tens of thousands of people rock up to soak it all in. Sandown Park, meanwhile, prefers to host a number of short meetings rather than a few long ones, and so the Summer Celebration is based over two days at the end of August.
As is common for flat race meetings, each day features seven races apiece. The Celebration normally takes place on the last weekend in August, but this can sometimes lead to one or even both of the days shifting to the start of September, depending on how things fall. The Friday is a day to be enjoyed, with enough decent races to keep you satisfied but fully in the knowledge that the biggest races come on the Saturday. That doesn’t mean that you should pay it any mind, however, with enough interest to keep you firmly glued to the racetrack to see how things pan out.
Whilst the Saturday of the Summer Celebration has traditionally been something of a family day, with plenty of goings on aimed at younger racegoers, it has become far more of an all-rounded in recent times. As soon as the final race has run its course the party starts, with entertainment and music usually found in the grandstands. That’s for the end of the day, however, with the day itself still very much about the horse racing.