Green’s Dictionary of Slang

used fig. to indicate some form of profession or occupation in which there is an implication of challenges that must be overcome, e.g. the matrimonial stakes, the novel-writing stakes.

c.1885		A.W. Pinero Magistrate (1914) I 24: You nominated yourself for the Matrimonial Stakes. Mr. Farringdon’s The Widow, by Bereavement, out of Mourning, ten pounds extra .
1901		G.B. Shaw Admirable Bashville II i: I am not yet so threadbare as to accept these consolation stakes .
1914		Tennessean (Nashville, TN) 18 Oct. 44/1: Is the proverb ‘All’s fair i love and war’ top apply to [...] the Matrimonial Stakes?
1926		Galsworthy Silver Spoon in Works (1928) 153: He was not going to enter for the slender stakes .
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 34: Both the men looked as if they might be on the Jo Roncing [i.e. poncing] stakes.
1956		‘Raymond Thorp’ Viper 101: I wanted to try the opium stakes. We bought little brown balls of it.
1969		Listener 3 Apr. 470/1: No music is more recuperative than Mozart’s and, in the therapy stakes, none runs it as close as Webern’s.
1976		Newcastle Jrnl 23 Aug. 10/3: There is big business in the fake picture stakes.
1977		Spare Rib May 37/1: Energy and money were spent outdoing other girls in the beauty stakes.