It and the Ashland Oaks, the Kentucky Association racetrack's predecessor race, were named for Ashland, the homestead and breeding farm of statesman Henry Clay in Lexington, Kentucky.
Restricted to three-year-olds fillies the race is currently run at a distance of one and one-sixteenth miles.
Part of the 1936 inaugural events for the new Keeneland Race Course, the first two editions of the Ashland Stakes were open to fillies and mares, 3-years of age and older.
During World War II, from 1943 through 1945 the race was hosted by Churchill Downs in Louisville.
In the 1974 edition, Brumfield rode to victory on Winged Wishes, a horse owned by his mother, Viola, then took the second running aboard Darby Dan Farm's, Maud Muller.