Royal Ascot is an annual British horse race meeting held at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire, England. It is one of the five British Classic Races run during the flat season. The Royal Meeting is a two-week fixture that includes a number of other top-class races such as the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, the Queen Anne Stakes and the King’s Stand Stakes, as well as royal appearances from members of the British Royal Family.
Whatever you think of it, Royal Ascot so British, with its brass bands, acres of flags and Royalty, you almost couldnt make it up. Royal Ascot has always been as much about the spectators as the races. In 2021 Royal Ascot was prepared to open its doors to 12,000 racing fans a day but the coronavirus will still take a significant financial toll on the event, which fuses top-class sport and high fashion. Royal Ascot is a highlight of the summer social season and is certainly a must-attend event of the year and a quintessentially British day out. The social festivities and balls surrounding the races at Ascot have always played an important role, and today Royal Ascot is widely regarded as the high point of the English social season. Some of the finest facilities for entertaining at Royal Ascot can be found within the iconic main grandstand, each with views of the racing with their private balconies, overlooking the racecourse, final furlongs and finishing post. Since the reign of Queen Anne, Royal Ascot has been attended by eleven additional monarchs, including Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II, who has attended every day of every Royal Ascot since 1945 (except 2021, with Coronavirus disrupting plans).
The opening day at Royal Ascot rarely attracts more than 40,000 racegoers, unlike the 80,000 sell-out days later in the week, but if Frankel runs in the St James’s Palace Stakes he would become the star attraction on an already extraordinary card. The Tuesday of Royal Ascot is probably the hottest in terms of the quality we’ve got the Queen Anne, the group two Coventry Stakes, the Kings Stand and St James’s Palace, which are both group ones, and then three further decent races, two of which are handicaps. There have been many horses that will live long in the memory for many racing fans and Royal Ascot always provides a great venue for the best horses in the world to race one another.