The Coolmore Stud Stakes, registered as the Ascot Vale Stakes is a Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds, at set weights, run over 1200 metres at Flemington Racecourse

The conditions of the race were altered in 1969 to make it a race for 3yos.

Since then notable winners include VAIN (1969), one of the all-time great sprinters who won 12 of 14 including hollow victories in the Golden Slipper and Caulfield Guineas (1969).

He ran three times during the Flemington carnival as a 3yo — winning the Group 1 open sprint by 12 lengths and the Linlithgow Stakes by 6 lengths before carrying 4.5kg over weight for age to win the Cantala Stakes.

CENTURY (1972) and ENCOSTA DE LAGO (1996) were top sires; SURROUND (1976); MANI- KATO (1978): ROSE OF KINGSTON (1981) won theVRC Oaks (1981), Australasian Oaks and ATC Australian Derby (1982); Blue Diamond Stakes winners RANCHER (1982). ZEDITAVE (1988) and ALINGHI (2004), who also won the Thousand Guineas (2004) and Newmarket Hep (2005); and WEEKEND HUSSLER (2007) won the Caulfield Guineas (2007), Oakleigh Plate, Newmarket Hep and George Ryder Stakes (2008).