It should come as no surprise to learn that the May Festival is a three-day, midweek meeting staged at Chester Racecourse in Cheshire, North West England in early May. It is, in fact, the first meeting of the season on the ‘Roodeye’ and features some important trials for the Classic races – that is, the Oaks and the Derby – run at Epsom the following month.
The opening Wednesday, aptly titled ‘Trials Day’, features the Listed Cheshire Oaks, open to three-year-old fillies, and the Group 3 Chester Vase, open to three-year-old colts and geldings. In 2025, both races proved their worth as Classic trials, with the winners, Minnie Hauk and Lambourn, both trained by Aidan O’Brien, going on to win the Oaks and the Derby respectively.
The second day, titled ‘Ladies Day’, features another recognised Derby trial, the Listed Dee Stakes, albeit one that has failed to produce a Derby winner since Kris Kin, in 2003, while the older horses, aged four years and upwards, have a chance to shine in the Ormonde Stakes. The latter sometimes serves as a trial for the Coronation Cup at Epsom and has proved slightly more successful in that respect in recent years, with St. Nicholas Abbey, in 2011, the last horse to win both races in the same season.
Another prestigious and value race for older horses, the Group 2 Huxley Stakes, run over a mile and a quarter and worth £130,000 in prize money, is staged on the final Friday. ‘Chester Cup Day’, as it is titled, though, is all about the feature race, the Chester Cup, established in 1824, during the reign of King George and, nowadays, a valuable ‘Heritage Handicap’ worth over £170,000 in prize money. Run over an extended two and a quarter miles and open to horses aged four years and upwards, the Chester Cup has a safety limit of 17, but is so popular that it has spawned a consolation race, the Chester Plate, run later on the same day.