The Yellow Ribbon Stakes is a Grade I race for thoroughbred fillies and mares aged three-years-old and upwards. It is raced during the Oak Tree Racing Association meeting at Santa Anita Park in late September / early October. It is a major prep race for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf and is contested over a distance of 1-1/4 miles (2,000 meters) on the turf.
Part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge series, the winner of the 2008 Yellow Ribbon Stakes automatically qualifies for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf. Inaugurated in 1977, it was an Invitational through 1995. The name for the race was the idea of Oak Tree Founding Director Louis R. Rowan and is taken from the wartime song: "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree."