Stakes Race
Also called: stakes, added money
A stakes race is the top tier of racing: owners pay nomination and entry fees that are added to the purse, and these races carry the most prize money and prestige.
Stakes range from modest local events to the Grade 1 classics. A stakes win — and even a stakes placing — appears in boldface ('black type') in sales catalogs and materially raises the value of a horse and its relatives. The graded stakes are the most prestigious subset.
Examples
- arrow_rightA stakes win is the kind of line that makes a colt a stallion prospect.
- arrow_rightShe earned black type by running third in a listed stakes.