The Clásico El Ensayo, also known as the Clásico El Ensayo Mega for sponsorship reasons, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Chile open to three-year-olds, run at Club Hípico de Santiago in Santiago, run over a distance of 2,400 metres (1.5 mi).
[1] First run in 1873, it is the fourth oldest horse race in the Americas (after the Queen's Plate, Travers Stakes, and Belmont Stakes), and the oldest in Latin America.
[2] It is generally considered the most important horse race in Chile, on par with the Epsom Derby, the American classics, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in France, and the Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini in Argentina.
[10] In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the race was run in December instead of its usual date in late October or early November.
Many early Chilean races, including El Ensayo, were open to "mestizo" horses who weren't full Thoroughbred.