 The event , subsequently referred to as The Boat Race , or the University Boat Race , was held for a second time seven years later , in 1836 on the River Thames . It was then held intermittently until the 1856 race after which it became an annual event , interrupted only by the First and Second World Wars . As of 2016 , 162 Boat Races have been contested ; Cambridge lead overall with 82 victories to Oxford 's 79 , excluding the one " dead heat " recorded in the 1877 race . 
