Risen Star Stakes
| Grade II race | |
| Location |
Fair Grounds Race Course New Orleans, Louisiana |
|---|---|
| Inaugurated | 1973 |
| Race type | Thoroughbred - Flat racing |
| Website | www |
| Race information | |
| Distance | 1 1⁄16 miles (8.5 furlongs) |
| Surface | Dirt |
| Track | left-handed |
| Qualification | Three-year-olds |
| Weight | Assigned |
| Purse | $400,000 |
The Risen Star Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually in February at the Fair Grounds Race Course. It is open to three-year-old horses and is raced over a distance of one and one-sixteenth miles on the dirt. A Grade II event, it currently offers a purse of $400,000. The race is the major prep race to the Louisiana Derby and one of many prep race preparing colts for the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown. The American Graded Stakes Committee upgraded the race to Grade II from Grade III in 2010.
Previously known as the Louisiana Derby Trial Stakes, in 1989 it was renamed to honor locally-owned Risen Star who won the race in 1988 and went on to win the Preakness and Belmont Stakes and be voted the 1988 Eclipse Award for American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse.
Notably, in 1975 Golden Chance Farm's colt Master Derby won this race then went on to win the Louisiana Derby and the second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes.
The Risen Star Stakes was run in two divisions in 1993 and again in 1995.
Speed record:
A # designates that the race was run in two divisions in 1989, 1993 & 1995.
The 2006 race was held at Louisiana Downs.
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