The Victoria Racing Club Oaks (known as the Crown Oaks for sponsorship reasons), is a Victoria Racing Club (VRC) Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-old fillies, run under set weights conditions, over 2,500 metres at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, Australia on the third day of the VRC Spring Carnival, the Thursday after the Melbourne Cup in early November. Total prize money for the race is A$1,000,000

History

Record attendance for the race day was set in 2004 with 110,677 in attendance.

1950 and 1952 racebooks

  • 1950 VRC Oaks Stakes racebook front cover
  • 1950 VRC Oaks Stakes raceday officials
  • 1950 VRC Oaks Stakes winner, True Course
  • 1952 VRC Oaks Stakes racebook front cover
  • 1952 VRC Oaks Stakes raceday officials
  • 1952 VRC Oaks Stakes starters and results
  • 1952 VRC Oaks Stakes showing the winner, Waterlady
  • Back page showing railway arrangements and charges at the entrance gates

Name

  • 1861–1993 – VRC Oaks
  • 1994–2016 – Crown Oaks
  • 2017–2023 – Kennedy Oaks
  • 2024 onwards – Crown Oaks

Distance

  • 1861–1971 – 11⁄2 miles (~2400 metres)
  • 1972 – 2400 metres
  • 1973 onwards – 2500 metres

Grade

  • 1855–1978 – Principal Race
  • 1979 onwards – Group 1

Social attraction

Kennedy Oaks Day is popularly known as Ladies Day or just Oaks Day (but in recent times also colloquially called Blokes Day). Despite being held on a work day (Melbourne Cup Day is the only public holiday during the racing carnival), Oaks Day boasts the fastest growing crowd records of any day in the Carnival; excluding the pandemic-impacted years of 2020 and 2021, every Oaks Day since 1994 has drawn a crowd of 50,000 or more. While the main draw card of the race day are the stars of the track, the other popular event on Crown Oaks Day is the annual "Fashions on the Field" celebrations. Introduced by the Victoria Racing Club in 1962 in an effort to woo more women to the track, Ladies day and the Fashions on the Field concept has grown considerably with each year and is now adopted at racetracks and smaller events all over the world.

Attendance

Source:

Winners

See also