The City of Hope Mile Stakes is a Grade II American Thoroughbred horse race for horses aged three years old or older over the distance of one mile on the turf scheduled annually in September at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California.
The event was inaugurated on 4 October 1986 as the Colonel F. W. Koester Handicap at the Oak Tree Racing Association meeting at Santa Anita Park as the eighth race on the racecard and was won by the US Hall of Fame, Charles E. Whittingham trained Palace Music who broke the track record for the distance that was set by Pettrax in 20 April 1986.
[1] Palace Music in his next start would just fail winning the Breeders' Cup Mile finishing a head second to Last Tycoon.
[4] In 1996 the event was renamed to the Oak Tree Mile Handicap and at the same time was downgraded to Grade III.
[4] In 2013 the name of the event was changed to the City of Hope Stakes in honor of the cancer treatment center in Los Angeles.