The Pipalong Stakes was inaugurated in 2003 to honour Tom Bennett and Marjorie Easterby’s popular sprinter, trained by Tim Easterby around the turn of the millennium to win ten races including the Haydock Sprint Cup at the highest level.
The Listed contest, for fillies and mares aged four and older, is held over a mile at Pontefract each summer and has been contested by many high-class performers over the years.
Macadamia delivered an impressive three and a half-length victory over Monturani in the first running, and she would go on to win the Royal Hunt Cup and Falmouth Stakes on her next two starts for trainer James Fanshawe and owner-breeder Lord Vestey.
Macadamia, who was out of a half-sister to Lord Vestey’s Stayers’ Hurdle winner Karshi, certainly had an affinity with the Pipalong Stakes, as her daughter Spirit Raiser won the contest for the same connections in 2016.
The second renewal of the race produced another top-class winner in the shape of Chorist. Cheveley Park Stud’s homebred daughter of Pivotal took the race with the minimum of fuss on her five-year-old debut, and later that season would beat no less than Alexander Goldrun to land the Pretty Polly Stakes and find only Haafhd too good when running second in the Champion Stakes.
Chorist beat another Cheveley Park Stud colour-bearer, Ice Palace, into second in that 2004 edition of the Pipalong Stakes. That result sparked a wonderful run of success for the Newmarket operation in the contest, as it also owned the 2005 winner, Red Bloom, and the 2019 and 2020 scorers, Exhort and Romola.
In 2010 Tim Easterby achieved his ambition of winning the race named in honour of his former stable star, and did so, fittingly, with another game and durable filly in Off Chance – the winner of five of her 24 starts.
One of the most celebrated fillies or mares to have contested the Pipalong Stakes was the 1,000 Guineas heroine Billesdon Brook in 2019. She did not quite manage to win, finishing a brave second to Exhort, but she collected the Oak Tree Stakes and Sun Chariot Stakes on her next two outings.
This year’s race, sponsored by Weatherbys Bloodstock Pro and held on Tuesday, July 6, has attracted a high-class field as befits its name and roll of honour.
Waliyak ran a cracker at Royal Ascot last time, staying on well to finish third in the Kensington Palace Stakes. The Le Havre filly, trained by Roger Varian for Fawzi Abdulla Nass, was only a length adrift of the winner Lola Showgirl, to whom she was giving 20lb.
The race also features the Kensington Palace Stakes fourth and sixth, Declared Interest and Dalanijujo. Declared Interest, trained by Ralph Beckett for The Eclipse Partnership, is by Declaration Of War out of Grade 3-placed Wiener Valkyrie, while Dalanijujo, trained by Mick Channon for Chris Hirst, is a Night Of Thunder relation to the brilliant Notnowcato.
Lights On, who was not beaten far into eighth in the same race, bids to get back on the winning trail for Sir Michael Stoute having scored in handicaps at Nottingham and Ascot earlier in the season. The Siyouni half-sister to Group 1-placed Karar could become the fifth filly or mare to carry Cheveley Park Stud’s colours to victory in the Pipalong Stakes.
Cheveley Park Stud also bred another of this year’s contenders, the four-time winner Lottie Marie. Success for the Intello filly would be bittersweet for the famed nursery as it also owned her until last October, when she was sold to be trained by Joseph Tuite for Hankers and Maccas.
Agincourt (pictured), who finished eighth in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes at the royal meeting, takes a drop in grade. Trained by David O’Meara for her owner-breeder, Sir Robert Ogden, she is by Declaration Of War out of El Diamante, a Royal Applause half-sister to Manhattan Handicap winner Desert Blanc.
The lightly raced Listed third Domino Darling is an interesting contender, making her seasonal reappearance for trainer William Haggas and owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer. She is by Oppenheimer’s wonderful four-time Group 1 winner Golden Horn out of Disco Volante, a Listed-placed Sadler’s Wells half-sister to St James’s Palace Stakes runner-up Valentino.
Quality runs throughout the entire field and Jouska, who finished runner-up in Listed company at Musselburgh on her last start, represents trainer Henry Candy and owner Andrew Davis. She is a Cable Bay half-sister to Listed-placed Wasim.