Future Champions Festival: Dewhurst and Fillies' Mile – the Newmarket Group 1s that produce Classic winners

The Dubai Future Champions Festival returns to Newmarket’s Rowley Mile this Friday and Saturday (9–10 October), and few meetings in the calendar do more to shape the following year’s Classics. The Group 1 Fillies’ Mile headlines Friday and the Group 1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes tops Saturday’s card. Between them, those two races have produced 15 Classic winners since 2000, and the supporting Group races add several more.

Below we look at the two juvenile Group 1s, pick out the races at the meeting that have produced future Classic winners, and finish with a full list of every horse since 2000 that won at the meeting and landed a Classic the following season.

Darley Dewhurst Stakes (Group 1, 7f) – Saturday

The Dewhurst is Britain’s top two-year-old race over seven furlongs, and its record for finding Classic winners is outstanding. Since 2000, 11 Dewhurst winners have gone on to win at least one Classic the following season.

The roll of honour includes Frankel (2010), who won the following year’s 2,000 Guineas, plus Derby winners Sir Percy, New Approach and City of Troy. Rock of Gibraltar and Churchill both completed the English and Irish 2,000 Guineas double. Dawn Approach and Chaldean also won at Newmarket the following May, and Native Trail took the Irish 2,000 Guineas. Shamardal and St Mark’s Basilica both won the French 2,000 Guineas and the Prix du Jockey Club.

The 2026 Dewhurst

This year’s race looks set to bring together the favourites for next year’s two biggest Classics for colts. Charlie Appleby’s Desert Castle, a son of Frankel, is the 2,000 Guineas market leader after beating Sergei Diaghilev by three lengths in the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster. Appleby has won three of the last seven Dewhursts, with Pinatubo, Native Trail and Shadow Of Light.

Aidan O’Brien’s Darkness Falls, a son of Camelot, became Derby favourite after winning the new Group 1 Golden Fleece Stakes at Leopardstown by more than four lengths. He’ll drop back from nine furlongs to seven. O’Brien has won the Dewhurst eight times, and a ninth would give him the outright record for the race. Stablemates Great Barrier Reef and Raging Bull are also among the seven horses still entered, along with Jassas (Appleby), Rock Montreal (Roger Varian) and Gentle Hurricane (Andrew Balding).

bet365 Fillies’ Mile (Group 1, 1m) – Friday

The Fillies’ Mile moved to Newmarket permanently from Ascot in 2011. It joined this fixture in 2014 and has been the Friday feature of the Future Champions Festival since 2015. In that time, four winners have gone on to Classic success the following year:

• Minding (2015) won the 1,000 Guineas and the Oaks in 2016.
• Laurens (2017) won the Prix de Diane in 2018.
• Desert Flower (2024) won the 1,000 Guineas in 2025.
• Precise (2025) won the Irish 1,000 Guineas in 2026.

The 2026 Fillies’ Mile

Godolphin’s unbeaten Musical Times heads the market after winning the May Hill Stakes at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting, which also made her favourite for next year’s 1,000 Guineas. Appleby has said she’s at her best with some cut in the ground. Aidan O’Brien, who has won the race six times since 2000, has half of the dozen entries as he chases his own record of 28 Group 1 wins in a season.

The races that have produced future Classic winners

The two Group 1s are the headline acts, but they aren’t the only races at the meeting to produce Classic winners:

• Dewhurst Stakes (G1) – 11 Classic winners since 2000. This is the meeting’s main source.
• Fillies’ Mile (G1) – four Classic winners since joining the fixture in 2014.
• Autumn Stakes (G3, 1m) – four Classic winners since moving to Newmarket in 2011: Trading Leather (2013 Irish Derby), Kingston Hill (2014 St Leger), Persian King (2019 French 2,000 Guineas) and Coroebus (2022 2,000 Guineas). That’s a strong record for a Group 3.
• Rockfel Stakes (G2, 7f) – ran on Dewhurst day until 2013 and produced three Classic winners: Speciosa (2006 1,000 Guineas), Finsceal Beo (2007 1,000 Guineas and Irish 1,000 Guineas) and Just The Judge (2013 Irish 1,000 Guineas).
• Zetland Stakes (G3, 1m2f) – part of the festival since 2015. It produced 2018 St Leger winner Kew Gardens.

The Middle Park Stakes (on this card from 2011 to 2014), the Oh So Sharp Stakes and the Cornwallis Stakes haven’t produced a Classic winner in their time at the meeting.

Future Champions to Classic winners: the facts since 2000

• 23 horses have won a Group race at the meeting and gone on to win a Classic the following season.
• Between them they won 29 Classics. Six of those horses won two each.
• 15 came from the meeting’s two Group 1s: 11 from the Dewhurst and 4 from the Fillies’ Mile.
• The other eight came from the Autumn Stakes (4), the Rockfel Stakes (3) and the Zetland Stakes (1).
• The British 2,000 Guineas was won six times: by Rock of Gibraltar, Frankel, Dawn Approach, Churchill, Coroebus and Chaldean.
• The 1,000 Guineas was won four times: by Speciosa, Finsceal Beo, Minding and Desert Flower.
• The Derby was won three times: by Sir Percy, New Approach and City of Troy.
• The Oaks was won once, by Minding, and the St Leger twice, by Kingston Hill and Kew Gardens.

How we counted: “the meeting” means the fixture that stages the Dewhurst Stakes. That was Newmarket’s Champions meeting up to 2010, Future Champions Day from 2011 to 2014 and the Future Champions Festival since 2015. A race only counts in the years it was run at this fixture. That’s why Fillies’ Mile winners are included from 2014, and Rockfel winners only up to 2013. Classics are the British, Irish and French Guineas, Derbys and Oaks, plus the St Leger. Only Group races are included, not listed races or maidens.

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