Pocahontas Stakes

The Pocahontas Stakes is a Grade II race held in September at Louisville, Kentucky's Churchill Downs fall meet. Open to two-year-old Thoroughbred fillies, it is set at a distance of  1 ¹⁄₁₆ miles on the dirt. The race was upgraded from a Grade III race to a Grade II race in 2010 by the American Graded Stakes Committee.^[2]

The race was first held on Thanksgiving Day in 1969 and was fittingly named for Pocahontas, the daughter of Native-American chief Powhatan, who aided the early American settlers. The stakes race remained as a Thanksgiving Day event until 1982 when it was moved to the early weeks of the Fall Meet.

The new scheduling allowed the Pocahontas to become a major prep for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. It is a "Win and You're In" race in the Breeders' Cup Challenge series.^[3]

The distance of the race originated at 7 furlongs and was run at that distance for the first 13 years from 1969-1981. The distance was changed to one mile beginning in 1982 and continued at that distance through 2012. In 2013, the distance was changed to  1 ¹⁄₁₆ miles.^[1]

The Pocahontas is the first step on the annual Road to the Kentucky Oaks, a points system to qualify for the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs in the spring of the following year.^[4]

Records

Speed record

•  1 ¹⁄₁₆ miles - 1:44.38 Untapable (2013)
• 1 mile - 1:34.57 - Sara Louise (2008)

Most wins by a jockey

• 7 - Pat Day (1983 div.1, 1983 div.2, 1984, 1987, 1994, 1995, 2004)

Most wins by a trainer

• 3 - Dale L. Romans (2008, 2009, 2014)
• 3 - D. Wayne Lukas (1988, 1994, 2003)
• 3 - Pete Vestal (1991, 1996, 1997)

Most wins by an owner

• 3 - Wilmott Stables (1991, 1996, 1997)

Winners of the Pocahontas Stakes since 1992

Earlier winners

The race was run in two divisions in 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983.^[5]

See also

• Road to the Kentucky Oaks

References