Tag: royal ascot

Which is the longest race run at Royal Ascot?

The longest race run at Royal Ascot is the Queen Alexandra Stakes, a conditions, or weight-for-age, race over 2 miles, 5 furlongs and 143 yards, traditionally contested as the final race of the five-day Royal Meeting. Inaugurated in 1864, as the Alexandra Plate, the race is named in honour of Alexandra of Denmark, the wife of King Edward VII. Prior to 2006, the Queen Alexandra Stakes was run over a distance of 2 miles, 6 furlongs and 34 yards, but it was shortened to its current distance as a result of realignment of the track during the £200-million redevelopment of Ascot Racecourse. Nevertheless, the Queen Alexandra Stakes remains the longest race, not only at Royal Ascot, but anywhere in Britain, on the Flat racing calendar; it is, in fact, just five yards longer than the Pontefact Marathon Handicap.

The Queen Alexandra Stakes is synonymous with the name of Brown Jack, who won the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and the Ascot Stakes at Royal Ascot in 1928, but subsequently won the Queen Alexandra Stakes six years running in 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933 and 1934. Unsurprisingly, Brown Jack became one of the most popular British racehorses of his day, if not all time; his achievement is commemorated by a life-sized bronze statue, by celebrated equestrian painter Sir Alfred Munnings, which overlooks the paddock at Ascot Racecourse.

How many times did Yeats win the Gold Cup at Ascot?

Run over 2 miles, 3 furlongs and 210 yards and, nowadays, open to horses aged four years and upwards, the Gold Cup was inuagurated in 1807 and, when the European Pattern Race system was introduced 1971, was the one and only Group One race staged during Royal Ascot. Prior to 2008, just one horse, Sagaro, trained by François Boutin in Lamorlaye, near Chantilly, had won the Gold Cup three times. However, on June 19 that year, Yeats, trained by Aidan O’Brien, was sent off 11/8 favourite to become the second horse to complete a hat-trick in what is the longest Group One race in the world and duly obliged, drawing clear in the closing stages to beat Geordieland by 5 lengths.

Not only that, but the following year, as an eight-year-old, Yeats returned to Royal Ascot to attempt an unprecedented fourth win in the Gold Cup. Sent off 6/4 favourite, ahead of Geordieland and Paktai, who had finished first and second in the Group Two Henry II Stakes at Sandown the previous month, Yeats never gave his supporters an anxious moment; having taken a commanding lead inside the final quarter-of-a-mile, Yeats galloped on resolutely to beat Paktai by 3½ lengths with his old rival Geordieland 15 lengths further back in third place. Yeats was retired from racing the following October as was subsequently described by Timeform as ‘a giant who will be virtually impossible to replace on the track’.

Which races did Frankel win at Royal Ascot?

Bred and owned by Juddmonte Farms, under the auspices of Khalid Abdullah, and trained by the late Sir Henry Cecil, Frankel won five times at Ascot in all, but just two of those victories came at Royal Ascot. Indeed, on the first occasion, as a three-year-old, on June 14, 2011, Frankel came as close to defeat as he did in his entire 14-race career. Fresh from an impressive 6-length win in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, the Galileo colt was sent off at 30/100 to win the St. James’s Palace Stakes at the Royal Meeting. However, having taken a 6-length lead with a quarter of a mile to run, Frankel was quickly coming back to his rivals inside the final half a furlong and had to be ridden out by jockey Tom Queally to beat 20/1 chance Zoffany, trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by Ryan Moore, by three-quarters of a length.

The following season, as a four-year-old, Frankel contested the opening Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, for which he started a hugley prohibitive 1/10. Nevertheless, his cramped odds proved entirely justified as he soon quickened clear, despite drifting slightly right in the closing stages, for an extremely impressive 11-length win over old rival Excelebration; in so doing, Frankel achieved the highest rating ever achieved by a Flat horse in the history of Timeform.

Who is the most successful current jockey at Royal Ascot?

In the long, illustrious history of Royal Ascot, Lester Piggott is, far and away, the most successful jockey. Notwithstanding the fact that the Royal Meeting was not extended to five days until 2002 – seven years after Piggott retired for the second, and final, time in 1995 – ‘The Long Fella’ racked up a total of 116 winners.

However, the most successful current jockey at Royal Ascot is Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori, who stands head and shoulders above his contemporaries with 67 winners. Dettori rode his first Royal Ascot winner, Markofdistinction, trained by Luca Cumani, in the Queen Anne Stakes – at the time it was still a Group Two contest open to horses aged three years and upwards – as a 19-year-old in 1990. In the meantime, the Italian jockey has ridden a total of 24 Group One winners at the Royal Meeting and been leading jockey six times, most recently in 2019. Indeed, on ‘Ladies’ Day’ in 2019, Dettori rode a four-timer – a feat last achieved by Piggott himself in 1965 – which contributed to his total of seven winners.

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