The Great Jubilee Handicap, as it was originally known, was inugurated in 1887 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, who acceded to the throne on June 20, 1837. Run over a mile at Kempton Park, which opened in 1878, as one of the first purpose-built, enclosed racecourses in the country, the Great Jubilee Handicap was, in its heyday, a highly competitive, attractive betting heat, attracting widespread ante-post interest. Indeed, ‘The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News’ reported that the 1904 renewal, which was won for the second year running by Ypsilanti, who was conceding no less than 52lb to runner-up Cerisier, ‘was worth going miles to see’.
However, throughout the twentieth century, the Great Jubilee Handicap gradually fell from favour and, by the time it was last run on turf, as the ‘Johnno Spence Consulting Jubilee Handicap’ – the ‘Great’ epithet having long been a thing of the past – on May 2, 2005, it was just another run-of-the-mill handicap. For the record, the winner of the £9,323.60 first prize on that occasion was the five-year-old San Antonio, trained by Pam Sly and ridden by Willie Supple.
Shortly afterwards, Kempton Park closed for the installation of its original, synthetic Polytrack racing surface and, when racing resumed in March, 2006, the traditional ‘Jubilee Course’ was no longer in use. Previously, the Jubilee Course, which was a mile and a quarter in extent, joined the main right-handed, triangular course at the top of the home straight, thereby creating what author John Rickman described in ‘Homes of Sport’ as ‘two straight stretches joined by a right-hand bend.’ However, with Flat racing on turf no longer staged at Kempton Park, the course has been left to return to nature.