The Chandelier Stakes was a major Grade 2 race for two-year-old fillies held annually at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. Long regarded as one of the most important juvenile filly races on the West Coast, it regularly played a key role on the road to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Beginning in 2024, the race returned to its historic name, the Oak Leaf Stakes (G2).
• Origins: The race was inaugurated in 1969 as the Oak Leaf Stakes under the Oak Tree Racing Association. For more than four decades it stood as a key fall prep for fillies stretching out to two turns for the first time.
• Rebranding: In 2012, following a shift in racing operations, the race was renamed the Chandelier Stakes. Despite the new branding, the race kept its position on the calendar and remained part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series, awarding the winner an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
• Prestige: Throughout the Chandelier era, the race was known for producing elite fillies. Winners like Songbird, Stardom Bound, Sweet Catomine, Halfbridled, and Blind Luck went on to win championship titles or major graded stakes.
• Distance and surface: The race has consistently been run at 1 1/16 miles on dirt, making it a reliable early test of stamina for top juvenile fillies.
In 2024, Santa Anita Park reinstated the race’s traditional name, returning it to the Oak Leaf Stakes to honor its original identity and long historical connection to the Oak Tree Racing Association. The race remains a Grade 2 event, the purse remains approximately $200,000 and it continues to serve as a Breeders’ Cup prep for fillies aiming at the Juvenile Fillies division.
