Musidora Stakes

The Musidora Stakes is a Group 3 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old fillies. It is run over a distance of 1 mile, 2 furlongs and 88 yards (2,092 metres) at York in May.

History

The event is named after Musidora, the Yorkshire-trained winner of the 1,000 Guineas and Oaks in 1949. Established in 1961, it serves as a leading trial for the Oaks. The first running was won by Ambergris.

The present race grading system was introduced in 1971, and the Musidora Stakes was given Group 3 status.

In total, six winners of the race have achieved victory in the Oaks. The first was Noblesse in 1963, and the most recent was Sariska in 2009. The 2015 winner, Star Of Seville, won the Prix de Diane, the French equivalent of the Oaks.

The Musidora Stakes is currently held on the opening day of York's three-day Dante Festival meeting. It is run the day before the Dante Stakes.

Records

Winners

See also

References

Musidora

Jeanne Roques (23 February 1889 – 11 December 1957), better known by her stage name Musidora, was a French actress, film director and writer. She is best known for her acting in silent films, and rose to public attention for roles in the Louis Feuillade serials Les Vampires as Irma Vep and in Judex as Marie Verdier. Her vamp persona has been compared with that of Theda Bara.

Early life

Born Jeanne Roques in Paris, France and raised by a feminist mother and socialist father, Musidora began her career in the arts at an early age, writing her first novel at the age of fifteen and acting on the stage with the likes of Colette, one of her lifelong friends. During the very early years of French cinema Musidora began a professional collaboration with the highly successful French film director Louis Feuillade. But her first movie was Les miseres de l'aiguille, directed by Raphael Clamour in January 1914.

Adopting the moniker of Musidora (Greek for "gift of the muses"), after the heroine in Théophile Gautier's novel Fortunio, and affecting a unique vamp persona that would be popularized in the United States of America by actress Theda Bara at about the same time, Musidora soon found a foothold in the nascent medium of moving pictures. With her heavily kohled dark eyes, somewhat sinister make-up, pale skin and exotic wardrobes, Musidora quickly became a highly popular and instantly recognizable presence of European cinema.

Musidora (horse)

Musidora (1946–c. 1968) was an Irish-bred British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare, best known for winning two Classics in 1949. The filly won four times from twelve races in a racing career which lasted from 1948 until September 1949. After winning once as a two-year-old she won her first three races as a three-year-old including the 1000 Guineas over one mile at Newmarket and at the Epsom Oaks over one and a half miles at Epsom Downs Racecourse a month later. In the latter race she narrowly defeated the French filly Coronation, who went on to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. She finished unplaced in her three subsequent races and was retired to stud, where she had limited success as a broodmare.

Background

Musidora was a bay mare with a small white star bred in Ireland by F. F. Tuthill, who had bought her dam, an unraced and unbroken mare named Painted Vale for 220 guineas. Painted Vale produced several winners apart from Musidora, the most successful being the colt Sovrango, who won the Chester Vase,the Ormonde Stakes and the Oxfordshire Stakes. Musidora came from the second crop of foals sired by Nasrullah, a talented but temperamental racehorse who became a highly successful breeding stallion, especially following his export to the United States in 1950. He was the British champion sire in 1951 and the North American champion on five occasions.