page_title: Women's Boat Race
section_title: Henley Boat Races
hierarchical_section_title: Women's Boat Race / History / Henley Boat Races
caption_attribution_description: Henley Boat Races 2009: Oxford Women (dark blue) lead Cambridge Women
context_page_description: The Women's Boat Race is an annual rowing race between Cambridge University Women's Boat Club and Oxford University Women's Boat Club. First rowed in 1927, the race has taken place annually since 1964. Since the 2015 race it has been rowed on the same day and course as the men's Boat Race on the River Thames in London, taking place around Easter, and since 2018 the name "The Boat Race" has been applied to the combined event. The race is rowed in eights and the cox can be of any gender.
  The course covers a 4.2 miles stretch of the Thames in West London, from Putney to Mortlake. Members of both crews are traditionally known as blues and each boat as a "Blue Boat", with Cambridge in light blue and Oxford dark blue. As of 2019 Cambridge have won the race 44 times and Oxford 30 times. Cambridge has led Oxford in cumulative wins since 1966. The women's race has received television coverage and grown in popularity since 2015, attracting a television audience of 4.8 million viewers that year. The 2019 race was won by Cambridge by five lengths.
context_section_description: In 1975 the men's lightweight race started at Henley-on-Thames and the women's Boat race was relocated there in 1977 creating the Henley Boat Races. At Henley the race took place over a distance of 2,000 metres.
  The First VIII receive university blues, and is therefore more commonly known as the Blue Boat, with Cambridge in light blue and Oxford dark blue. While the crew is all female, the cox can be male or female. The Second VIII receives university colours. The 2011 race was the first to be sponsored by Newton Investment Management, a subsidiary of BNY Mellon. Previously the crews had no sponsorship and were self funded. Newton have remained the sponsor since then and increased the amount of funding significantly.
  For the 2013 race the entire Henley Boat Races was moved to Dorney Lake because of flooding on the river. Oxford won the 2014 race on the Henley course having beaten Cambridge by a distance of four boat lengths over two kilometres. A newly designed trophy, to replace the existing wooden shield, was awarded to the Oxford president by Olympic gold medallist Sophie Hosking who had won the Women's lightweight double sculls at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
caption: Henley Boat Races 2009: Oxford Women (dark blue) lead Cambridge Women
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