John Porter Stakes Betting

Conducted on the left-handed turf of the Newbury Racecourse in mid-April each year, the £50,000 John Porter Stakes is part of the two-day Dubai Duty Free Spring Trials Meeting and one of the early highlights of the British flat racing season. It covers a distance of one mile, four furlongs and eight yards, attracting some of the U.K.’s finest Thoroughbreds aged four years and older.

Each of the four-year-old runners in this Group 3 race carries a weight of eight stone eleven pounds, while the older mounts must bear an extra one pound burden. There is an allowance of three pounds for fillies and mares. Penalties are also applied for success in races of a mile or longer since 31st August of the prior year, amounting to seven pounds for Group 1 winners, five pounds for Group 2 winners and three pounds for Group 3 winners.

When the event was inaugurated in 1928, it was named to commemorate trainer John Porter (1838–1922), who was among the founders of the Newbury Racecourse in 1905. The race was initially open to horses aged three years and upwards, but the minimum requirement was increased to four years in 1949.

For much of its sponsored history, the race was known as the Lanes End John Porter EBF Stakes or simply the Lanes End Stakes. In 2000, Barry Case Plant Hire backed the event for a year. Although the officially registered title of the race has always been the John Porter Stakes, in 2002-04 its widely publicized name became the Dubai Irish Village Stakes, followed by the Dubai Tennis Championships Stakes in 2005-09 and then the Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise Stakes in 2010-11.

Throughout more than eight decades of racing, no horse has ever won the John Porter Stakes twice. The event has, however, hosted a number of great champions, such as the 1953 winner Wilwyn, a bay stallion that won eleven straight outings and the Queen Anne’s Plate before coming here.

The 1966 Epsom Derby winner Charlottown triumphed here in 1967, and the 1973 John Porter Stakes victor Rheingold went on to capture the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe that year. More recently, Harbinger took first here in 2010 before setting a new track record time in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes held at Ascot at the end of July.

Pat Eddery is the jockey with the most John Porter Stakes wins—a total of five all together. He got his first victory here aboard Rock Hopper in 1991 and followed it up with wins on Saddlers` Hall in 1992, Right Win in 1994, Sadian in 1999 and Lucido in 2001.

Meanwhile, trainer Sir Michael Stoute compiled five wins of his own here. They include both Rock Hopper and Harbinger, with Saddlers’ Hall in 1992, Whitewater Affair in 1997 and Maraahel in 2007 claiming victories in between.

Four-year-olds hold a slight advantage historically and have won five of the last ten outings. That decade also saw one five-year-old winner and three six-year-olds achieved success. The other triumph went to Mubtaker in 2006, finishing at odds of 9/1 at the ripe old age of nine. Prior to that, the oldest winner was eight-year-old Yavana’s Place in 2000 paying 7/1.

The top payout in recent years came from Enroller in 2009, beating the field by a length and a half to deliver at 12/1. The latest favourites to succeed were Day Flight in 2005 and Maraahel, both paying at 9/4 odds.

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