Highclere Thoroughbred Racing Announced As Sponsor Of Group 3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes

Newbury Racecourse is delighted to announce Highclere Thoroughbred Racing as the new sponsor of the Group 3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes. The Highclere Thoroughbred Racing Geoffrey Freer Stakes, open to horses three-years and older, worth a total prize fund of £90,000, is due to take place on Saturday 16th August on Visit Malta Hungerford Day with Clean Bandit.

The 1m5½f contest, the opening race of the seven-day card, is often used as a trial for The St Leger, the final Classic of the season. The William Haggas trained Al Aasy, sent off evens favourite, recorded a comfortable victory in last year’s renewal under Jim Crowley. Al Asay provided owners, Shadwell Estate Company Ltd, with another victory in the race having already won back-to-back renewals in 2002, 2003 and 2004 with Mubtaker, trained by Marcus Tregoning, and in 2020 and 2021 with the Owen Burrows trained Hukum. The only other horses to have recorded back-to-back successes include the Derrick Candy trained High Line in 1970 and 1971 and Ardross in 1981 and 1982 when trained by the late Sir Henry Cecil.

Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, the locally based syndicate company, were victorious in the race in 2011 when Richard Hughes rode their Richard Hannon Snr trained Census to a 1¾ length victory. Europe’s leading racehorse syndication company, Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, specialises in putting together small groups of people to share in a number of top quality Flat and National Hunt horses. The William Haggas trained Merchant recently provided the syndicate with their twelfth Royal Ascot victory in the 2025 renewal of the King George V Stakes.

Shaun Hinds, Chief Executive Officer of Newbury Racecourse, commented: “We are thrilled to announce the new partnership with Highclere Thoroughbred Racing and extend our thanks for their support of The Geoffrey Freer Stakes. A race in which they have enjoyed success in the past, we are always pleased to see horses owned by Highclere Thoroughbred Racing competing here at Newbury. It is set to be a fantastic day with Group action on the track as well as live music from Clean Bandit taking place after the conclusion of racing.”

Harry Herbert, Chairman of Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, commented: “I am delighted to support the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing Geoffrey Freer Stakes (Gr 3) which is such an important and historic race in Newbury’s calendar. Newbury is my favourite and much-loved home track where our Highclere horses have won so many fabulous races.”

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