Theo Marks Stakes Winners, Past Results & Latest News

The Theo Marks Stakes is a Group 2 graded race run by under the banner of the Australian Turf Club in September of each year. The Theo Marks Stakes is run over a distance of 1300 metres and held at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse.

The Theo Marks Stakes is run under Quality Handicap conditions for horses that are three years and older with total prize money for the race at $200,000. The Theo Marks is run on the same day as the Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes and Group 3 Kingston Town Stakes.

History Of The Theo Marks Stakes

The history of the Theo Marks Stakes horse race dates back to 1946 when the inaugural Theo Marks Stakes was run and won by Australian Racing Hall of Fame and multiple Group 1 winning horse, Shannon.

The race itself is named after the great Theodore John Marks who was the architect and chairman of Rosehill Gardens Racecourse between 1919 and 1941. 

Theo Marks was a Sydney based architect who was heavily entrenched in the building of racing in the city. Marks was a member of Australian Jockey Club from 1983 and an original shareholder in the Victoria Park Racing and Recreation Grounds Ltd for pony racing. 

The main work of Theo Marks however came during his tenure as Rosehill Racing Clubs chairman where he oversaw all the structural changes that were made to the Rosehill Gardens Racecourse, where the Theo Marks Stakes are held to this day. 

Not only was Marks involved with the shaping of Rosehill Gardens however he was also responsible for designing and altering many of the existing buildings at Randwick Racecourse in partnership with C.W. Cropper.

The stamp of Theo Marks also stretches to the outer west with designs at Canterbury Racecourse, Warwick Farm Racecourse and even across the border in Victoria where he worked on designs for Moonee Valley and Flemington Racecourses.

Outside of designing racecourse improvements Theo Marks also owned many race horses which ran under his personal silks which consisted of a Purple jersey and White cap. Winners included Pixie Ring, Herilda and Leura who were all trained by Fred Williams at Randwick Racecourse.

The Theo Marks Stakes were originally launched as a Principal Race before being ungraded to a Group 2 grade race in 1979. It has also have varying distances with the race moving between 1300m and 1400m several times during its 75 years. 

In 2010 the race was briefly known as the Sebring Spring in honour of the great race horse Sebring however the race returned to the Theo Marks Stakes in 2013, once again in honour of Theodore John Marks’ achievements. 

Race Venue For The Theo Marks Stakes

The Theo Marks Group 2 ATC Thoroughbred race takes place at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse and is currently run over a distance of 1300m.

Rosehill is where Theo Marks stamped his legacy on the horse racing industry in New South Wales and a fitting location for the race, named in his honour, to be run.

Racing at Rosehill Racecourse has been taking place since 1885 when the course was first opened in Sydney’s Western Suburbs. The initial build work for Rosehill Racecourse started in 1883 and was completed in 1885 for a grand total of $24,000.

Rosehill Racecourse was also designed to have an a accompanying Railway Station to improve accessibility to the area and just three years after the racecourse build work was completed the train station was opened in 1888.

Today the Rosehill Racecourse is run under the banner of the Australian Turf Club which looks after Rosehill Racecourse, Royal Randwick Racecourse and Warwick Farm with Randwick and Rosehill the two flagship courses for the ATC.

Rosehill plays host to racing all year with over 50 meetings taking place at the track including 9 Group 1 races like the Golden Slipper Stakes, George Ryder Stakes and Ranvet Stakes. The Gardens are also famous for hosting the only race day in Australia with 4 Group 1s on the same card. 

More recently Rosehill has been the beneficiary of financial racing boosts with the likes of the Golden Eagle which has a prize pool of $7.5m. The race was designed specifically for four year olds to encourage owners to keep racing their talented runners rather than retiring them to stud as 3 year olds. 

Past Winners of the Theo Marks Stakes

There have been 74 previous winners of the Theo Marks Stakes with the first ever running of the race won by the great Shannon who was a multiple Group 1 winning horse and Australian Horse Racing Hall of Famer.

Since then we have seen great horses like Shogun Lodge, offspring of the great American sire Grand Lodge, win the race on the way to becoming a multiple Group 1 champion and running an impressive second in 12 more.

Another notable winner in 2010 was the 8 time Group 1 winner More Joyous under the tutelage of Gai Waterhouse. Rosehill was a great hunting ground for More Joyous who out of 29 black type victories won 14 of them at Rosehill. One of which was of course the Group 2 Theo Marks Stakes which at this time was known as the Sebring Sprint. 

Of course the most famous and notable winner of the Theo Marks Stakes has to be the great mare, Winx. 

Winx was famed for winning 33 consecutive races in a row and has a statue in her honour at Rosehill Gardens where her home training stable stood. 

The 2015 running of the Theo Marks was possibly the most thrilling with Winx leaving hearts in mouths till late after remaining second last on the bend before powering down the outside and over the top of Sons of John in a head bobbing finish. 

At that time no one knew just how much the Chris Waller trained runner would go on to achieve however Winx most definitely put people on notice with such an emphatic win. 

Conclusion - The Theo Marks Stakes

The Theo Marks is a great way to honour the foundation that Theodore John Marks layed for racing in Sydney and across Australia.

Many of the older racetracks still bear his mark to this day with areas like the members' pavilions at Rosehill and Randwick having the vision and sculpture of Marks’ craftsmanship.

The race itself is high quality and always attracts great runners who have gone on to win multiple Group 1s and Hall of Fame status so is always a good way to suss out emerging and developing talent for the upcoming spring.