Racing · Grade 1 fillies & mares
The Empress Club Stakes.
The defining Weight For Age mile for South Africa's best fillies and mares — a Turffontein Grade 1 named for a galloping goldmine.
The race.
The fillies and mares mile that settles the argument.
The TAB Empress Club Stakes is the premier Weight For Age 1600m for fillies and mares on the South African calendar. Run on the Turffontein Standside in April — on the same weekend that frames the colts’ Triple Crown and the fillies’ Triple Tiara programme — it is the race where three-year-old Classic graduates meet seasoned older mares on level terms. One mile, one direction, one question: who is the best of her sex over a mile?
Heritage
Named for the Galloping Goldmine.
The race honours Empress Club, the Argentinian import trained by the late Terrance Millard for owner Laurie Jaffee. Debuting at the Vaal on 23 March 1991, she won 14 of her next 19, took eight Grade 1s including the Cape Town Met and Queen's Plate, and was a five-time SA champion — dubbed the Galloping Goldmine by commentator Clyde Basel. The honour roll she lends her name to reads like a history of the division: Dancer's Daughter (2009, Justin Snaith), Dancewiththedevil (2011, St John Gray), Thunder Dance (2013, Brett Crawford), Inara (2016, Mike Bass), Nother Russia twice (2017 and 2018, Mike de Kock), and Horse Of The Year Summer Pudding in 2021. Staged on the Turffontein Standside as a Grade 1 over 1600m, the race currently runs under TAB sponsorship.
Turffontein racecourseThe race at a glance.
Grade 1 · 1600m · Fillies & Mares WFA · Turffontein · April.
Grade and distance
Run on the Turffontein Standside over 1600m, turf, at Weight For Age. Restricted to three-year-old and older fillies and mares.
On the same card as the classic legs
Staged on 4Racing's Triple Crown / Tiara weekend at Turffontein, alongside the SA Derby and SA Oaks. Quality over quantity — fields are small and Cape raiders regularly travel for this one.
TAB Empress Club Stakes
Carries the TAB title on the current 4Racing programme, with the heritage name of Empress Club retained in full.
A trainer's roll
Mike de Kock has dominated the modern era with seven winners in sixteen years — more than any other trainer on the honour roll.
Notable Empress Club winners.
The modern era, in four names.
Dancewiththedevil
Trained by St John Gray, ridden by S'manga Khumalo — St John Gray's first of two on the honour roll.
Nother Russia
By Tiger Ridge out of Mother Russia; Mike de Kock / Craig Zackey. Back-to-back in 2017 and 2018; Equus Champion Older Female.
Summer Pudding
By Silvano; trained by Paul Peter, ridden by Warren Kennedy. Triple Tiara winner and Equus Horse Of The Year.
Gimme A Nother
By Gimmethegreenlight out of Nother Russia; Mike de Kock / JP van der Merwe. Unbeaten run, later exported via France to the US.
The test
A mile on the Standside, at level weights.
1600m on Turffontein's Standside is an honest mile: a long run to the turn, then a straight that punishes anything short of genuine. Weight For Age — three-year-olds receive their age allowance, older mares carry scale — forces the question onto the horse rather than the handicapper. It is why the race typically fields seven or eight, not fifteen: quality over quantity, Cape raiders meeting the Highveld's best, Classic-winning three-year-olds stepping up to take on proven older mares. When a top trainer lands this one, it tends to mean the filly in question is the real thing.
Turffontein racecourseBe there
The Empress Club at Turffontein.
Triple Crown weekend hospitality at Turffontein — suites, grandstand tables and parade-ring packages. Reserve early; this weekend books out first.
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