2YO racing in Australia was not always the popular slice of the racing spectrum that it is today.
The Widden Stakes was first run during the war years in 1943, and the inaugural race was won by Birthright, by Le Grand Duc out of Magpie's daughter Box On.
Birthright sadly did not breed on, but had a full sister Mission Chimes, and she became the dam of the legendary racemare Evening Peal - winner of the 1956 Melbourne Cup!
For the best part of 60 years, until 2003, the Widden Stakes was run as part of Sydney’s spring program.
It was moved first to early January, then to later in the month or early February, and there it has remained.
The 1100m distance was fixed until 1978 when it changed to 1000 metres, before shifting back to its original route in 2005.
From 2004 to 2006 the race was briefly known as the Tatt’s NSW Widden Stakes and it was open to both sexes.
During this time it was won by the colts Econsul by Pins ( who would go on to G1 Caulfield Guineas glory at three) and the eventual Golden Slipper runner up, the Danehill Dancer son Churchill Downs.
By the 1940s juvenile racing in Australia was well established, but it had met with much opposition and indeed frank disdain along the journey
Way back in 1896, the VRC committee had formed a particularly dim view of early two year old racing, and it had proposed a ban on the activities of what it called “breeders and buyers of the trashy sort” - meaning those who would race a juvenile horse before October.
Such a ban did come into effect around 1900, in all states bar South Australia, which stubbornly held out until the 1940s!
By the time the 1920s rolled around, each state had its own program of feature races for the babies.
Great two year olds to race in Australia during that era included the freakish Heroic (his sire Valais stood first at the newly established Arrowfield Stud, then from 1924 at Widden) who went on to earn nine Australian Champion Sire titles and shape the breed.
Heroic's legendary son Ajax was foaled at Widden on the same day Peter Pan won the Melbourne Cup.
He would also become a great sire and broodmare sire - among many fine progeny of his daughters were the Golden Slipper winning fillies Magic Night and Birthday Card.
Widden Stud won the Widden Stakes with their own Ajax daughter Oasis in 1947.
The influence of Valais powers on unstoppable to this day - primarily through Kaoru Star and his son Luskin Star - in the pedigrees of sires like Slipper winners Danzero, Capitalist and Sebring, and champion stallions like Dundeel and Pins to name just a few of many.
Kaoru Star was a grandson of the filly Pantomime, who was bred 3 x 3 to Valais and won the 1948 Widden Stakes.
Yet even after the impact of a horse like Heroic at stud siring a slew of stakes winners over any and all distances, there was still plenty of stigma around the practice of racing and breeding to race, juvenile thoroughbreds in some quarters.
“The thoroughbred would be better served if interest were in older horses over exacting distances rather than juveniles over trifling routes,” opined a writer for the Sydney Morning Herald in 1939 - and that sentiment is still to be found echoing around front bars and internet forums to this day.
It was the introduction and runaway success of the Golden Slipper Stakes in 1957 which turned the commercial tide for good.
Widden Stud rode the crest of the wave which would become a tsunami of success, standing the inaugural winner Todman (his sire Star Kingdom was domiciled next door at Baramul Stud) and a succession of great stallions who would indelibly stamp the Australian thoroughbred.
Vain, Lunchtime, Marscay, Bletchingly, General Nediym, Stratum, Sebring, Northern Meteor. They are all laid to rest at historic Widden beneath their headstones, in the beautiful valley they called home.
This race honours the role of Widden Stud in the evolution of Thoroughbred breeding and racing in Australia.
Founded in 1867 by the Thompson family, the stud has the distinction of being the oldest family owned and operated thoroughbred stud in existence, spanning seven generations of horse breeding in “The Valley Of Champions.”
It is truly a national treasure and today is still at the top of the breeding game, even expanding into Victoria, with an enormous two-state stallion roster headlined by champion sire Zoustar commanding a fee of $275,000.
Many great fillies have won the Widden Stakes and gone on to make their mark on the breed.
One of the best was Denise's Joy (Seventh Hussar) in 1974, who went on to Oaks / Derby glory at three and founded one of the great families in the Australian studbook.
The year after Denise's Joy the great Vain daughter Rainbeam saluted and would achieve immortality as the dam of champion sire and broodmare sire Centaine.
The wonderful Marscay daughter Triscay was the Widden heroine of 1989, also collecting the Silver Slipper, Riesling and Blue Diamond Prelude at two.
At three her wins included the Flight Stakes and AJC / QLD Oaks double - she also became the first filly to win the Australian Guineas. Through her G1 winning daughter La Baraka Triscay is the ancestress of the half brothers and successful sires Tassort and Astern and of the 3 x G1 winning filly Alizee.
Lee Freedman's legendary sprinter Schillaci was a son of the 1982 Widden heroine Biscarina who gave a preview of the blistering speed her 8 x G1 winning son would inherit.
Other notable fillies to win the race in the early days were Queen Of All, April Wonder, champion Baguette's full sister Heirloom and her daughter Blue Mountain, Peeping, All Gold, Shaybisc and Royal Endeavour.
Between 1990 - mid 2000s memorable winners included Lilting, Miss Thunderstood, Miss Bussell, Secret Land, Pasikatera, Horizons, Satin Shoes and Driefontein.
Only three fillies have won the Widden Stakes / Golden Slipper double and two of them did it in consecutive years - Overreach in 2013 and Mossfun in 2014. The third is the 2024 Slipper heroine Lady Of Camelot.
The 2016 winner Honesty Prevails (Redoute's,Choice) is the dam of G1 winner and young sire Profondo.
Snitzel sired the excellent 2020 winner Away Game and Not A Single Doubt got the 2021 victress Mallory.
They were followed by Queen Of The Ball (I Am Invincible), Learning To Fly (Justify), Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon) and the 2025 Widden winner The Playwright (Written By).
Who will join the Widden's historic honour roll in 2026? A field of ten racy fillies will step out at Rosehill!
